Question: I would like to have the same editor available on all of the platforms I frequent.

Emacs and Vi are not desired solutions.

Answer: 
**Creating a shortcut file with target :**

Create a shortcut of your eclipse.
Open the properties of the shortcut file and set the target as follows,

```
E\STS.exe -data "WORKSPACE_LOCATION"

```

**For launching from .bat file :**

```
cd ECLIPSE_LOCATION   
start STS.exe -data "WORKSPACE_LOCATION"

```

Example:

```
cd /D D:\IDE\sts-bundle\sts-3.7.0.RELEASE    
start STS.exe -data "D:\My Workspace\workspace1"

```
From <https://help.eclipse.org/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/reference/misc/runtime-options.html>

It is also possible to specify the workspace location using the `osgi.instance.area` JVM arg as `-Dosgi.instance.area=../workspace`

This can be specified in the eclipse.ini file along with existing/other JVM args such as `-Xms, -Xmx`. 

This option may be convenient for those who just want to append to the eclipse.ini file (which already contains other JVM args) without worrying to ensure that JVM args appear at the end.