Determined to provide unprecedented ease of use, the Eclipse Foundation
has
unveiled the third version of the popular Java development tools
environment, which now includes a rich client platform.
The first full upgrade in nearly two years, the Eclipse Platform
Release 3.0
boasts across-the-board improvements, many centered around usability.
Improving usability of the open source platform is crucial because the
mass
of software in it comes from developers who use disparate methods,
according
to Eclipse Foundation Executive Director Mike Milinkovich.
Milinkovich, recently hired
from Oracle to help shape the group’s vision to
provide
the best, open source Java development environment possible, discussed
several new features
with internetnews.com.
The director said foundation members improved the ability to tailor
menus
and toolbars, and created a new method for managing workbench features
to
make Eclipse user interfaces react faster. This is essentially in an
environment where users post hundreds of plug-ins and other functions,
which
can impede workflow.
For example, tasks in previous Eclipse versions would run in the
foreground,
blocking the user from the interface, which meant they had to stop
working
until the job was processed. Code refactoring in 3.0 has made it
multithreaded, meaning it can run tasks for a long-running job in the
background to free the UI so a developer can keep working.
“From a developer tools perspective there is a ton of new functionality
in
3.0 that strengthen the platform: Eclipse Modeling Framework, the UML
new
potential for open source add-ins and better coordination across the
life-cycle.”
Eclipse has also been optimized as a rich client platform, Milinkovich
said.
Eclipse members have refactored object-oriented development tools for
application construction and integration, including the workspace GUI,
the
functional extension plug-in, help subsystem and update manager.
Over the last couple of years, Milinkovich said people have come to
Eclipse
and said, “If I hack the following things I can actually use this as
framework to build and deploy my applications.” Milinkovich noted that
Lotus
“stole a bit of Eclipse’s thunder” when it announced that its WorkPlace
Client would be based on the revised platform.
In another key development, Eclipse has also made it possible for
programmers to embed SWING
Sun
Microsystems that enable the creation of graphical user interfaces
(GUI), in
interfaces based on SWT, the software component from Eclipse that
delivers
native widget functionality for the platform.
SWING works differently from SWT because it doesn’t use the native
widget
set on each platform, emulating operating systems instead. With SWT,
Eclipse
brings up the real user interface on that platform, natively. Both
SWING and
SWT are portable and by letting programmers integrate SWING tools,
Eclipse
is making it easier for them to tap into 3.0 for Windows and Linux.
“We’re trying to attract more people who have built tools in Java to
our IDE
platform by lowering the barrier to entry. They don’t have to
reimplement
their user interface to use Eclipse now,” Milinkovich said.
“Support for Swing is especially important for tools authors that are
building plug-ins but would like to keep things as similar as possible
across a variety of Java environments: Eclipse, JBuilder, Java Studio,
WebLogic Workshop,” Murphy told internetnews.com. “It also helps
close some of the issue around SWT being a proprietary system deviating
from
the Java standard for UIs, which is Swing.”
Royalty-free distribution of the Eclipse 3.0 is available June 28 via
download from Eclipse.
Meanwhile, Milinkovich said he will be meeting with members of Sun
Microsystems at JavaOne but that there are no
current
plans to build a bridge between Eclipse and the NetBeans IDE from Sun.
Talks centered
around getting Sun to join Eclipse or having Eclipse join NetBeans have
waxed and waned to no avail, as rival development camps deadlocked on
bureaucratic issues.
