posted 12 years ago
There's something wrong if you're seeing jdk files in an Eclipse workspace directory.
A user/machine can have multiple workspaces and it is optional to have Eclipse prompt which workspace to use for a given session. I've even been known to switch workspaces in the middle of a session.
Why do I have multiple workspaces? Because I have major projects and minor projects. The minor projects are mostly experiments or various apps that I have written for my own personal benefit. Rather than have one enormous workspace, I split them into 2, since I'll rarely want one of the minor projects at the same time as I'm working on a major project (and vice versa).
An Eclipse workspace is simply a directory containing a ".metadata" directory initially. As you add projects, project files and directories will be added - although I should note that projects can also be located in directories external to the workspace.
A workspace is self-contained, re-assignable but not concurrently sharable. Its metadata keeps track of editing state, which is why only one user at a time. It also tracks a user's preferences, both for Eclipse itself and for plugins. Source code repository URLs are stashed somewhere in the metadata, as are definitions for external tools (if any), and run/debug configurations.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.