Embedding Eclipse Once, Enriching Many Apps

Eclipse is now for embedded developers too.

The Eclipse Device Software Development Platform (DSDP) project this week
unleashed three milestone releases, Target Management 1.0, Embedded Rich
Client Platform (eRCP, release version 1.0 and Mobile Tools for the Java
Platform (MTJ) release version 0.7.

DSDP was founded as a top-level Eclipse project in 2005 as an effort to
create an open standards based development platform for embedded software
developers.

The Target Management (TM), project is all about the creation of frameworks
and data models that help to manage and configure embedded systems
connections and services. The TM project uses an open source version of IBM
Remote System Explorer as its technology base. In addition to IBM, Symbian,
MontaVista and Wind River are listed contributors to the effort.

One of the fastest
growing Eclipse projects is Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) which
enables developers to create application that will run across multiple
platforms. Eclipse RCP is the technology behind IBM’s recent Lotus
Notes and Sametime releases for Linux. Eclipse RCP is now coming to the
embedded space with the Embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP), release
version 1.0.

The express goal of the eRCP project is to extend the Eclipse Rich Client
Platform to embedded devices. The eRCP project provides a mobile device
optimized subset of RCP components. IBM, Nokia and Motorola are contributing
to the effort.

With the Mobile Tools for the Java Platform (MTJ), contributors Nokia, IBM
and SonyEricsson are extending Eclipse to mobile java application
development.

Over the course of its five year
history Eclipse hasn’t had much of a dedicated focus on the embedded
space. That’s not to say however that embedded developers haven’t been using
the core Eclipse platform, because they have.

“The reality with device software vendors like Wind River and anyone else
you’d see at an embedded systems conference is that almost every single
vendor is building on Eclipse and has been for a couple of years,” Doug
Gaff, leader of the DSDP Project Management Committee (PMC) and a Wind River
employee told internetnews.com.

Gaff noted that the development process in Eclipse is extremely well
structured for pretty much any technical direction a developer might want to
pursue.

“It’s already become the de facto standard and it’s just natural that now
stuff is starting to fall out,” Gaff said. “Developers are now saying this
is a commodity and we should really collaborate on it and that’s what you’re
seeing in DSDP today.”