Hi LVC
congratulations on your Eventide Eclipse ! ! ! 
The first thing you should do is get to know MIDI. From an average musician level of use MIDI is quite simple. PROGRAM CHANGES recall presets and CONTROL CHANGES can be assigned to parameters for real time control. MIDI is an exadecimal system so numbers ranges will vary from 0>127 or 1>128, depending on how a hardware manufacturer chooses. Some devices even offer the user to select any of the 2 systems.
I would search the internet as it's really rich in MIDI resources information.
These are just some useful links, but you may well find others or better ones:
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Balcony/7837/midtutrl1.html
http://www.harmony-central.com/MIDI/Doc/doc.html
http://www.midiworld.com/basics.htm
http://www.sfu.ca/sca/Manuals/247/midi/Midi.html
http://www.borg.com/~jglatt/
http://server.ats.com.au/~jonescnt/sysexman.htm
http://www.synthzone.com/ctrlr.htm
http://www.midi.org/
Once you have a grasp of this, manuals won't confuse you anymore.
Eclipse has a LEARN mode to patch CC messages to parameters.
Once the Eventide and your pedalboard will be there, in your place, you will need to go thru the manuals. Eclipse manual has a walkthru tutorial on how to recall presets, organize MIDI Maps and patch MIDI CC messages to parameters.
Regarding your amp, you'll need to refer to their manufacturer, not to us.
All MIDI pedalboards are compatible as MIDI is a standard. The choice is based on what you need to do (I know….you don't have a complete picture yet). A MIDI MATE or a Ground Control Pro are excellent starting points. In time you may or may not need a deeper unit, who knows today.
No editor is available for Eclipse nor it is planned at the moment.
You may also want to chek our knowledge area, here:
http://www.eventide.com/Home/Eventide/AudioDivision/Support/Knowledgebase.aspx
all the best
I
