Hi. Is there a way to load other mods via forge when developing with eclipse?  Mods where I only have a normal zip and no source?

 

I am looking for a way to test comparability with other mods etc

Beared Octo nemesis can decompile a mod that's use able in the forge development mods folder although do note that I having certain mods together will cause it to craft as the decompiled isn't 100% perfect you can find it over @ chicken bones forum

Is there a way without decompiling them?  I have tried putting the zips in folders relative the the bin folder but that just crashes minecraft in eclipse.

no. the vanilla based code in the mods are obfuscated and cannot be run in a deobfuscated environment

I also have wanted to run other, 3^rd party mods from within eclipse to test compatibility, but even when deobfuscating the mods using BON like you said, they do not load with errors such as

java.lang.IncompatableClassError

and

java.lang.IncorrectRenderMethod

as I said its not 100% perfect you would need to fix the errors yourself by decompiling it with something like JAD after BON has deobfuscated it which is what everyone does if they need to test with mods non open source but be careful when doing this as to not include anything in things like github ect ect