maintenance / updated developer notes to aid setup

Author: davidramnero

DEVELOPER.md

@@ -3,9 +3,13 @@
 
 ## Development
 
-### installing tools needed
-
-TODO some commands/packages
+### Recommended setup
+1. Install Eclipse IDE for Eclipse Committers 2024-03
+2. Install CDT
+3. Install JDK 21
+4. Set up Eclipse and PDE launch config to use your JDK 21 install
+5. Import repo as 'Existing Maven Project'
+6. Activate latest target version (in com.googlecode.cppchecklipse.target/)
 
 ### build
 
@@ -17,7 +21,12 @@ TODO command
 
 ### testing plugin in eclipse
 
-TODO write description
+If you have set up everything as recommended above, all you need to do to test locally is to create a run config.
+
+The run config should be an Eclipse Application launch that is set to 'run a product'.
+Under the plug-ins tab you should set it to launch with 'All workspace and enabled target Plug-ins', and click 'validate plug-ins' before running.
+
+With the run config create you should be able to simply press 'run' and test out the extension. Note that you will need to set the path to your cppcheck executable in the test environment for the analysis to be able to run.
 
 ## release process