# 5 Minutes Tutorial

In this chapter you will learn how to create a new Xtext project, generate a fully working language infrastructure and how to start a new Eclipse instance in order to test the editor. But before we get started, make sure you have Eclipse Xtext properly installed.

## Creating A New Xtext Project

The first step is to create a new Xtext project by choosing File → New → Project…. The dialog offers a couple of different project types. Select New Xtext Project from the category Xtext and finish the wizard with the default settings. You will find 4 new projects in your workspace which are mostly empty. The Xtext grammar editor will be opened and show the definition of a very simple Hello World language.

    grammar org.xtext.example.mydsl.MyDsl with
                                          org.eclipse.xtext.common.Terminals

    generate myDsl "http://www.xtext.org/example/mydsl/MyDsl"

    Model:
      greetings+=Greeting*;

    Greeting:
      'Hello' name=ID '!';

The only thing this language does, is to allow to write down a list of greetings. The following would be proper input:

    Hello Xtext!
    Hello World!

## Generating The Language Infrastructure

In order to test drive this language, you will have to generate the respective language infrastructure. Therefore, choose Run As → Generate Xtext Artifacts from the context menu of the grammar editor. A new Java process will be spawned and afterwards you will find a couple of new files in the projects that were created in the first step. What you see now is a runnable language infrastructure with a powerful Eclipse editor for a brain-dead language :-).

## Try The Editor

Let’s give the editor a try. If you select Run As → Eclipse Application from the project’s context menu, you can create a new Eclipse Application. A new Eclipse instance will be launched and allows to test drive the editor.

Before you can create a file for the sample language, you will have to create a sample project. Select File → New → Project… and choose a project type of your choice, e.g. Java Project, name it Sample and create a new file in the src folder of the project: From the context menu of the folder choose New → File, call it Sample.mydsl and hit Finish. The newly created editor will open for your language and ask you in a dialog, whether you want to add the Xtext nature to your project, which should be confirmed. You can now give the editor a try, e.g. use content assist (Ctrl+Space) to insert the keyword `Hello` and see how the input is validated immediately.

## Conclusion

In your first five minutes with Xtext, you have learned how to create a new set of projects. You have run Xtext’s code generation in order to get a fully working language infrastructure, and finally learned how to test the generated editor.

Next up you should go through the more comprehensive Domain Model Example. It explains the different concepts of the Xtext grammar language and illustrates how to customize various aspects of the language.

Next Chapter: 15 Minutes Tutorial