Hi, Let me try to answer two of the three questions, even though I have no experience with the Derby Eclipse plugin...
danga wrote:
1) Since I also have the javaDB installed (Java 1.6) why should I use the plug-in ? I notice that the same jar files are available ?
Well, I would assume that the plugin provides some convenient/extra features in your IDE for interaction with Derby. Also, although the jar file names are the same, they may contain different versions of Derby (see http://wiki.apache.org/db-derby/VersionInfo ). I'm not sure about this, but maybe you can configure the Eclipse plugin to use different jars if you'd like to? Eclipse users may have a better answer...
2) Is it not better to download Apache Derby and install it, instead of the javaDB
That depends on your needs. Just using the Java DB bundled with the JDK can be quite convenient. Then again, the JDK may bundle an older version of Java DB than the newest one that is available for standalone download, so if you want the "latest and greatest" version, you might want to download Derby or Java DB separately anyway (yes, Java DB is also available as a separate download, at http://developers.sun.com/javadb/ ). The difference between Java DB and Derby is essentially that with Java DB you get a support offering from Sun (see http://developers.sun.com/javadb/support/ ), and you might get add-ons that are not available for Derby, for example proper installers for your operating system. This might or might not be of interest to you, so it's entirely up to you what to do :) Hope this helps, -- John
