> Why do I have to sacrifice all that valuable vertical space for information that is always stacked in the 20% left side of that huge panel?
You don't, hide it via CSS[1]. Entire Eclipse UI is customizable. Install CSS Spy[2] to experiment live before committing changes.
My Eclipse setup actually looks like VIM with split buffers, there is nary a wasted pixel. To get to that point that though (e.g. hiding right side gutters and always-on scrollbars) is a bit more involved, need to take custom plugin route for that.
You don't, hide it via CSS[1]. Entire Eclipse UI is customizable. Install CSS Spy[2] to experiment live before committing changes.
My Eclipse setup actually looks like VIM with split buffers, there is nary a wasted pixel. To get to that point that though (e.g. hiding right side gutters and always-on scrollbars) is a bit more involved, need to take custom plugin route for that.
[1] http://stackoverflow.com/a/17027501/185840 [2] http://marketplace.eclipse.org/content/eclipse-4-tools-css-s...