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Licence EPL

Photo: Colin Purrington

e4
What will

Eclipse be?
the future of
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1.0
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2.0
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3.0
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3.1
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3.2
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3.3
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3.4!
 Agenda

• Eclipse, a successful story

►±2000 ... Eclipse birth
►2008 ... Eclipse now
►2010 ... Eclipse Odyssey?
• The key technologies of e4
►SWT
►RAP
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►Dojo, Flex, Silverlight, ...Android?

• The Application Model
►backward compatibility?
• DEMO!
• Discussion
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Eclipse, a successful story

 Eclipse History (1)

• 1999
►IBM (OTI) starts Eclipse as
an internal project
• 2001
►Eclipse 1.0
►Open-Source donation
(CPL) - www.eclipse.org
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• 2002
►Eclipse 2.0
• 2003 Photo: Alessandro Paiva

►Eclipse 2.1
 Eclipse History (2)

• 2004
►Eclipse Foundation
− not-for-profit organization
►Eclipse 3.0
− OSGi adoption
− Rich Client Platform
• 2005-2007
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►Eclipse 3.1, 3.2, 3.3

►Simultaneous releases
Photo: Alessandro Paiva
• 2008
►Ganymede
►24 projects
 Eclipse 3.4: state of affairs

• Many technologies are now the reference

►OSGi, Equinox : component/plug-in model
►RCP : rich client
►EMF : modeling
• A very active Open Source community
►Eclipse Foundation
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 e4: WHY?

• Entry fee is too high for

►plug-in developers
►potential contributors
• APIs are
►hard to find
►(sometimes) not documented well
►(sometimes) redundant
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• Bad separation of concerns

• The Eclipse platform is too closed
 The e4 Plan

• What e4 needs to address:

Photo: Sanja Gjenero

►new UI directions
►bring modeling to the IDE
►improve p2 integration
►keep on leveraging and
promoting OSGi and
Equinox
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• Eclipse 4.0 SDK... built on

e4!
►Developers eat their own
dog's food!
 The e4 Plan - UI

• (More) separation of appearance from content

►Scripting
►Styling (CSS-like)
• Declarative UI
• Other (better?) look&feel
►forget some « IDE » preconception
• Web
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 The e4 Plan - Modeling

• Expose a DOM of the Workbench

►secret dream: implement a CSS-like presentation layer
• Leverage the EMF infrastructure?
►code generation (with minimal footprint)
►notifications
►serialization
►...
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 The e4 Plan - p2

• Replace this good old Update Manager

• Two kinds of repositories
►artifacts
►metadata
• Much better management of
►dependencies
►profiles
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►installation/removal
 The e4 Plan - RT

• Eclipse is often seen as tools, but is in fact a platform

• One platform to rule them all!
►Consistent programming
►Common component model
− set of basic services
• ...many implementations
►Equinox
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►ECF
►eRCP
►RAP
►Riena
►etc.
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The technologies of e4
 RAP

• Bring the Workbench to the Web

►Server-side: Equinox
►Client-side: qooxdoo
• The RAP widget toolkit is based on SWT
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 RAP vs. RCP

  RCP RAP
OSGi on the server
Plugin Model OSGi
(inside a webapp)
Widget WWW Widget
SWT
Toolkit Toolkit (W4T)
JFace (adapted, as
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Model View
JFace standard JFace has
Controller
references to SWT)
UI
Workbench Web Workbench
Framework
 From SWT 3.x to SWT 4

• SWT
►The Eclipse graphical toolkit
►Efficient, portable, native
►Native code, Java interface
►Supported by many platforms
− Desktop : Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Solaris
− Embedded : Windows Mobile, Nokia phones, ...
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− Web : RAP
 Future of SWT

• Be more « webish »
• Because there are more and more web applications
• Choose one (many?) target platform
►« RAP 2 »
− qooxdoo, Dojo, ...
►Flex
− ActionScript
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►Silverlight
− .Net
 Rethink the Application Model

• Think in terms of services

►« Which service do I need? »
− and the UI should not be seen as a service, thus not part of the AM
►more than « Is this the A, B, or whatever plug-in that will
help me to do such or such thing? »
►strongly described
− automatically generated documentation
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• The « Twenty Things »

►basic essential services Eclipse must address
►SelectionService, Adapters, Undo/Redo, Menus, ...
 Ensure backward compatibility

• Strong business need for backward compatibility

►1000+ plug-ins in EPIC
• BUT e4 is the chance to clean-up fuzzy APIs
• Eclipse 3.x experience
►compatibility plug-in fragments
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 Timeline

• May 22-23, 2008: e4 Summit in Ottawa

►Project proposal to come
• Developments already started
►e4-incubator in the Eclipse CVS
• Try to sync-up with 3.x changes when possible

• Release in 2010!
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DEMO!
 Thank you!

Benjamin Cabé
Eclipse Expert
<benjamin.cabe@anyware-tech.com>
http://blog.benjamin-cabe.com
http://www.anyware-tech.com
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