Eclipse Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins

by Clayberg, Eric; Rubel, Dan

• ISBN13: 9780321426727
• ISBN10: 032142672X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-03-22
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional

Summary

"I'm often asked, 'What are the best books about Eclipse?' Number one on my list, every time, is Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins. I find it to be the clearest and most relevant book about Eclipse for the real-world software developer. Other Eclipse books focus on the internal Eclipse architecture or on repeating the Eclipse documentation, whereas this book is laser focused on the issues and concepts that matter when you're trying to build a product." -- Bjorn Freeman-Benson Director, Open Source Process, Eclipse Foundation"As the title suggests, this massive tome is intended as a guide to best practices for writing Eclipse plug-ins. I think in that respect it succeeds handily. Before you even think about distributing a plug-in you've written, read this book." -- Ernest Friedman-Hill Sheriff, JavaRanch.com"Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins was an invaluable training aid for all of our team members. In fact, training our team without the use of this book as a base would have been virtually impossible. It is now required reading for all our developers and helped us deliver a brand-new, very complex product on time and on budget thanks to the great job this book does of explaining the process of building plug-ins for Eclipse." -- Bruce Gruenbaum"This is easily one of the most useful books I own. If you are new to developing Eclipse plug-ins, it is a 'must-have' that will save you lots of time and effort. You will find lots of good advice in here, especially things that will help add a whole layer of professionalism and completeness to any plug-in. The book is very focused, well-structured, thorough, clearly written, and doesn't contain a single page of 'waffly page filler.' The diagrams explaining the relationships between the different components and manifest sections are excellent and aid in understanding how everything fits together. This book goes well beyond Actions, Views, and Editors, and I think everyone will benefit from the authors' experience. I certainly have." -- Tony Saveski"The authors of this seminal book have decades of proven experience with the most productive and robust software engineering technologies ever developed. Their experiences have now been well applied to the use of Eclipse for more effective Java development. A must-have for any serious software engineering professional!" -- Ed Klimas"Just wanted to also let you know this is an excellent book! Thanks for putting forth the effort to create a book that is easy to read and technical at the same time!" -- Brooke Hedrick"The key to developing great plug-ins for Eclipse is understanding where and how to extend the IDE, and that's what this book gives you. It is a must for serious plug-in developers, especially those building commercial applications. I wouldn't be without it." -- Brian Wilkerson"If you're looking for just one Eclipse plug-in development book that will be your guide, this is the one. While there are other books available on Eclipse, few dive as deep as Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins." -- Simon ArcherEclipse has established itself as a dominant force in the application-development space. Key to the success of Eclipse is the ability of developers to extend its functionality using plug-ins.This new edition of Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins is the definitive, start-to-finish guide to building commercial-quality Eclipse plug-ins, with an emphasis on adding the sophistication and polish that paying customers demand. The book provides both a quick introduction to using Eclipse for new users and a reference for experienced Eclipse users wishing to expand their knowledge and improve the quality of their Eclipse-based products.Revised to take advantage of pure Eclipse 3.1 and 3.2 APIs, this widely praised bestsell

Author Biography

Eric Clayberg is Senior Vice President for Product Development for Instantiations, Inc. Eric is a easoned software technologist, product developer, entrepreneur, and manager. He has a B.S. from MIT, an MBA from Harvard, and has cofounded two successful software companies, ObjectShare and Instantiations.

Dan Rubel is Chief Technology Officer for Instantiations, Inc. He is an entrepreneur and an expert in the design and application of OO technologies. Dan is the primary architect and product manager for several successful commercial products. He has a B.S. from Bucknell and is a cofounder of Instantiations.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xxxi
Skip McGaughey
Foreword	xxxiii
Simon Archer
Preface	xxxv
Using Eclipse Tools	1	(64)
Getting Started	1	(2)
Getting Eclipse	1	(2)
Installation	3	(1)
The Eclipse Workbench	3	(11)
Perspectives, views, and editors	5	(6)
Actions	11	(3)
Setting Up Your Environment	14	(5)
Workbench preferences	15	(2)
Java preferences	17	(1)
Importing and exporting preferences	18	(1)
Creating a Project	19	(7)
Using the new Java Project wizard	19	(3)
.classpath and .project files	22	(2)
Using the Java Package wizard	24	(1)
Using the Java Class wizard	24	(2)
Navigating	26	(2)
Open Type dialog	26	(1)
Type Hierarchy view	27	(1)
Go to Line	27	(1)
Outline view	27	(1)
Searching	28	(6)
File Search	28	(2)
Java Search	30	(1)
Other Search menu options	31	(1)
Working sets	32	(2)
Writing Code	34	(14)
Java editor	34	(5)
Templates	39	(2)
Refactoring	41	(3)
Local history	44	(2)
File extension associations	46	(2)
Team Development Using CVS	48	(6)
Getting started with CVS	49	(1)
Checking out a project from CVS	50	(1)
Synchronizing with the repository	51	(1)
Comparing and replacing resources	52	(1)
CVS label decorators	53	(1)
Running Applications	54	(4)
Launching Java applications	55	(1)
Launch configurations	56	(2)
Introduction to Debugging	58	(3)
Setting breakpoints	58	(2)
Using the Debug view	60	(1)
Using the Variables view	60	(1)
Using the Expressions view	60	(1)
Introduction to Testing	61	(2)
Creating test cases	61	(1)
Running test cases	62	(1)
Summary	63	(2)
A Simple Plug-in Example	65	(36)
The Favorites Plug-in	65	(1)
Creating a Plug-in Project	66	(5)
New Plug-in Project wizard	66	(1)
Define the plug-in	67	(2)
Define the view	69	(2)
Reviewing the Generated Code	71	(10)
The Plug-in manifests	71	(6)
The Plug-in class	77	(1)
The Favorites view	78	(3)
Building a Product	81	(5)
Building manually	81	(2)
Building with Apache Ant	83	(3)
Installing and Running the Product	86	(2)
Debugging the Product	88	(2)
Creating a configuration	88	(1)
Selecting plug-ins and fragments	89	(1)
Launching the Runtime Workbench	90	(1)
PDE Views	90	(2)
The Plug-in Registry view	90	(1)
The Plug-ins view	91	(1)
The Plug-in Dependencies view	91	(1)
Writing Plug-in Tests	92	(6)
Test preparation	92	(1)
Creating a Plug-in test project	92	(1)
Creating a Plug-in test	93	(4)
Running a Plug-in test	97	(1)
Uninstalling the Favorites plug-in	98	(1)
Summary	98	(3)
Eclipse Infrastructure	101	(26)
Structural Overview	101	(3)
Plug-in structure	102	(2)
Workspace	104	(1)
Plug-in Directory or JAR file	104	(3)
Link files	105	(1)
Hybrid approach	106	(1)
Plug-in Manifest	107	(7)
Plug-in declaration	108	(2)
Plug-in runtime	110	(1)
Plug-in dependencies	110	(2)
Extensions and extension points	112	(2)
Plug-in Class	114	(5)
Startup and shutdown	114	(1)
Early plug-in startup	114	(1)
Static plug-in resources	115	(1)
Plug-in preferences	116	(1)
Plug-in configuration files	116	(2)
Plugin and AbstractUIPlugin	118	(1)
Plug-in Model	119	(3)
Platform	119	(1)
Plug-ins and Bundles	120	(1)
Plug-in extension registry	121	(1)
Logging	122	(2)
Status objects	123	(1)
The Error Log view	124	(1)
Eclipse Plug-ins	124	(1)
Summary	125	(2)
The Standard Widget Toolkit	127	(58)
SWT History and Goals	127	(3)
SWT Widgets	130	(40)
Simple stand-alone example	130	(3)
Widget lifecycle	133	(1)
Widget events	134	(2)
Abstract widget classes	136	(4)
Top-level classes	140	(3)
Useful widgets	143	(23)
Menus	166	(4)
Layout Management	170	(10)
FillLayout	170	(1)
RowLayout	171	(3)
GridLayout	174	(3)
FormLayout	177	(3)
Resource Management	180	(1)
Colors	180	(1)
Fonts	181	(1)
Images	181	(1)
Summary	181	(4)
Face Viewers	185	(22)
List-Oriented Viewers	185	(18)
Label providers	186	(1)
Content providers	187	(2)
Viewer sorters	189	(1)
Viewer filters	189	(1)
Structured Viewer class	190	(2)
ListViewer class	192	(3)
TableViewer class	195	(4)
TreeViewer class	199	(4)
Text Viewers	203	(3)
Summary	206	(1)
Actions	207	(52)
Action versus IActionDelegate	207	(2)
Workbench Window Actions	209	(15)
Defining a workbench window menu	209	(3)
Groups in a menu	212	(1)
Defining a menu item and toolbar button	212	(2)
Action images	214	(1)
Insertion points	215	(1)
Creating an action delegate	216	(3)
Manually testing the new action	219	(1)
Adding a test for the new action	220	(2)
Discussion	222	(2)
Object Actions	224	(13)
Defining an object-based action	224	(3)
Action filtering and enablement	227	(6)
IObjectActionDelegate	233	(1)
Creating an object-based submenu	234	(1)
Manually testing the new action	235	(1)
Adding a test for the new action	235	(2)
View Actions	237	(7)
Defining a view context submenu	237	(1)
Defining a view context menu action	238	(2)
IViewActionDelegate	240	(1)
Defining a view toolbar action	240	(1)
Defining a view pull-down submenu and action	241	(1)
Manually testing the new actions	242	(1)
Adding tests for the new actions	242	(1)
View context menu identifiers	242	(2)
Editor Actions	244	(7)
Defining an editor context menu	245	(1)
Defining an editor context action	246	(1)
IEditorActionDelegate	246	(1)
Defining an editor top-level menu	247	(1)
Defining an editor top-level action	248	(1)
Defining an editor toolbar action	249	(1)
Adding tests for the new actions	250	(1)
Editor context menu identifiers	250	(1)
Key Bindings	251	(5)
Categories	252	(1)
Commands	252	(1)
Key bindings	252	(3)
Associating commands with actions	255	(1)
Keyboard accessibility	255	(1)
RFRS Considerations	256	(1)
Global action labels (RFRS 5.3.5.1)	257	(1)
Summary	257	(2)
Views	259	(66)
View Declaration	261	(2)
Declaring a view category	261	(1)
Declaring a view	262	(1)
View Part	263	(20)
View methods	263	(1)
View controls	264	(1)
View model	265	(11)
Content provider	276	(1)
Label provider	277	(1)
Viewer sorter	278	(3)
Viewer filters	281	(1)
View selection	282	(1)
View Actions	283	(22)
Model actions	283	(1)
Context menu	283	(4)
Toolbar buttons	287	(1)
Pull-down menu	287	(1)
Keyboard actions	288	(1)
Global actions	289	(1)
Clipboard actions	290	(4)
Drag-and-drop support	294	(7)
Inline editing	301	(4)
Linking the View	305	(3)
Selection provider	305	(1)
Adaptable objects	306	(1)
Selection listener	306	(1)
Opening an editor	307	(1)
Saving View State	308	(6)
Saving local view information	308	(3)
Saving global view information	311	(3)
Testing	314	(1)
Image Caching	315	(1)
Auto-sizing Table Columns	316	(3)
RFRS Considerations	319	(4)
Views for navigation (RFRS 3.5.15)	319	(1)
Views save immediately (RFRS 3.5.16)	320	(1)
View initialization (RFRS 3.5.17)	320	(1)
View global actions (RFRS 3.5.18)	320	(1)
Persist view state (RFRS 3.5.19)	321	(1)
Register context menus (RFRS 5.3.5.8)	321	(1)
Action filters for views (RFRS 5.3.5.9)	322	(1)
Summary	323	(2)
Editors	325	(50)
Editor Declaration	326	(4)
Editor Part	330	(14)
Editor methods	330	(1)
Editor controls	331	(4)
Editor model	335	(6)
Content provider	341	(1)
Label provider	342	(2)
Editing	344	(6)
Cell editors	344	(1)
Cell modifiers	345	(2)
Change listeners	347	(1)
Cell validators	348	(1)
Editing versus selecting	349	(1)
Editor Lifecycle	350	(4)
Dirty editors	351	(1)
Switching pages	352	(1)
Saving content	353	(1)
Editor Actions	354	(15)
Context menu	354	(3)
Editor contributor	357	(5)
Undo/Redo	362	(7)
Clipboard actions	369	(1)
Linking the Editor	369	(1)
RFRS Considerations	369	(5)
Using an editor to edit or browse (RFRS 3.5.9)	370	(1)
Editor lifecycle (RFRS 3.5.10)	370	(1)
Accessing global actions (RFRS 3.5.11)	371	(1)
Closing when the object is deleted (RFRS 3.5.12)	371	(1)
Synchronize external changes (RFRS 3.5.14)	372	(1)
Registering editor menus (RFRS 5.3.5.2)	372	(1)
Editor action filters (RFRS 5.3.5.3)	373	(1)
Unsaved editor modifications (RFRS 5.3.5.4)	373	(1)
Prefix dirty resources (RFRS 5.3.5.5)	373	(1)
Editor outline view (RFRS 5.3.5.6)	374	(1)
Synchronize with outline view (RFRS 5.3.5.7)	374	(1)
Summary	374	(1)
Resource Change Tracking	375	(14)
IResourceChangeListener	375	(4)
IResourceChangeEvent	376	(1)
IResourceDelta	377	(2)
Processing Change Events	379	(3)
Batching Change Events	382	(1)
Progress Monitor	383	(4)
IProgressMonitor	383	(1)
Classes for displaying progress	384	(1)
Workbench window status bar	385	(1)
IProgressService	386	(1)
Delayed Changed Events	387	(1)
Summary	388	(1)
Perspectives	389	(16)
Creating a Perspective	389	(7)
Perspective extension point	390	(2)
Perspective factories	392	(3)
IPageLayout	395	(1)
Enhancing an Existing Perspective	396	(7)
Adding views and placeholders	398	(2)
Adding shortcuts	400	(2)
Adding action sets	402	(1)
RFRS Considerations	403	(1)
Create for long-lived tasks (RFRS 5.3.5.10)	403	(1)
Extend existing perspectives (RFRS 5.3.5.11)	404	(1)
Add actions to window menu (RFRS 5.3.5.15)	404	(1)
Summary	404	(1)
Dialogs and Wizards	405	(46)
Dialogs	405	(25)
SWT dialogs versus JFace dialogs	406	(1)
Common SWT dialogs	406	(1)
Common JFace dialogs	407	(3)
Creating a JFace dialog	410	(2)
Dialog units	412	(1)
Initial dialog location and size	413	(1)
Resizable dialogs	414	(2)
Favorites view filter dialog	416	(4)
Details dialog	420	(8)
Opening a dialog---finding a parent shell	428	(2)
Wizards	430	(19)
IWizard	431	(2)
IWizardPage	433	(1)
IWizardContainer	434	(1)
Nested wizards	435	(1)
Launching a wizard	435	(4)
Wizard example	439	(2)
Dialog settings	441	(1)
Page content based on selection	441	(6)
Page content based on previous page	447	(2)
RFRS Considerations	449	(1)
Wizard look and feel (RFRS 3.5.2)	449	(1)
Open new file in editor (RFRS 3.5.6)	449	(1)
New project switches perspective (RFRS 3.5.7)	449	(1)
Show new object (RFRS 3.5.8)	450	(1)
One-page wizard buttons (RFRS 5.3.5.13)	450	(1)
Summary	450	(1)
Preference Pages	451	(26)
Creating a Preference Page	451	(2)
Preference Page APIs	453	(14)
FieldEditorPreferencePage	455	(1)
Field editors	456	(4)
PreferencePage	460	(1)
Favorites preference page	461	(2)
Validation	463	(1)
Nested preference pages	464	(2)
Tabbed preference pages	466	(1)
Preference APIs	467	(7)
Default preferences	468	(1)
Accessing preferences	469	(2)
Specifying default values programmatically	471	(1)
Specifying default values in a file	472	(1)
Hooking up the Favorites view	473	(1)
Listening for preference changes	474	(1)
RFRS Considerations	474	(1)
Preferences dialog use (RFRS 3.5.25)	475	(1)
Summary	475	(2)
Properties	477	(20)
Creating Properties	477	(4)
FavoriteItem properties	478	(1)
Resource properties	479	(2)
Displaying Properties in the Properties Dialog	481	(8)
Declaring a Property page	481	(4)
Creating a resource Property page	485	(2)
Creating a Favorities item resource page	487	(1)
Opening the Properties dialog	488	(1)
Displaying Properties in the Properties View	489	(4)
Properties view API	490	(2)
Favorite properties in the Properties view	492	(1)
Property Pages Reused as Preference Pages	493	(2)
RFRS Considerations	495	(1)
Properties views for quick access (RFRS 3.5.21)	495	(1)
Summary	495	(2)
Builders, Markers, and Natures	497	(42)
Builders	499	(13)
Declaring a builder	499	(3)
IncrementalProjectBuilder	502	(7)
Derived resources	509	(1)
Associating a builder with a project	509	(3)
Invoking builders	512	(1)
Markers	512	(13)
Marker types	513	(2)
Creating and deleting markers	515	(2)
Marker attributes	517	(3)
Marker resolution---quick fix	520	(5)
Finding markers	525	(1)
Natures	525	(10)
Declaring a nature	526	(2)
Associating builders and natures	528	(1)
IProjectNature	529	(1)
Required natures	530	(1)
Conflicting natures	531	(1)
Nature image	531	(1)
Associating a nature with a project	532	(3)
RFRS Considerations	535	(2)
Use builders to convert resources (RFRS 3.8.1)	535	(1)
Do not replace existing builders (RFRS 3.8.3)	535	(1)
Do not misuse the term ``build'' (RFRS 5.3.8.1)	535	(1)
Mark created resources as ``derived'' (RFRS 5.3.8.2)	536	(1)
Respond to clean-build requests (RFRS 5.3.8.3)	536	(1)
Use IResourceProxy when possible (RFRS 5.3.8.4)	537	(1)
Builders must be added by natures (RFRS 5.3.8.5)	537	(1)
Summary	537	(2)
Implementing Help	539	(36)
Using Help	539	(3)
Implementing Help	542	(10)
Creating a new help project	543	(4)
Plug-in manifest files	547	(1)
Table of contents (toc) files	548	(3)
Creating HTML content	551	(1)
Context-Sensitive Help (F1)	552	(8)
Associating context IDs with items	553	(2)
IWorkbenchHelpSystem API	555	(1)
Creating context-sensitive help content	556	(1)
Context extension point	557	(3)
Marker help	560	(1)
Accessing Help Programmatically	560	(3)
Opening a specific help page	561	(1)
Opening a Web page	562	(1)
Cheat Sheets	563	(7)
Using a cheat sheet	563	(2)
Creating a simple cheat sheet	565	(3)
Adding cheat sheet actions	568	(2)
RFRS Considerations	570	(4)
Provide help through help system (RFRS 3.7.2)	570	(1)
Provide all help via the help system (RFRS 5.3.7.1)	571	(1)
Context help activated using F1 (RFRS 5.3.7.2)	571	(1)
Implement active help (RFRS 5.3.7.3)	572	(1)
Use of stand-alone help (RFRS 5.3.7.4)	572	(1)
Use of additional documentation (RFRS 5.3.7.5)	572	(1)
Provide an overview of tasks flow (RFRS 5.3.5.34)	573	(1)
Illustrate only one task (RFRS 5.3.5.35)	573	(1)
Provide help link with each step (RFRS 5.3.5.36)	573	(1)
Summary	574	(1)
Internationalization	575	(20)
Externalizing the Plug-in Manifest	576	(2)
Externalizing Plug-in Strings	578	(9)
Using Fragments	587	(7)
New Fragment Project wizard	588	(3)
Fragment manifest file	591	(2)
Fragment project contents	593	(1)
Summary	594	(1)
Creating New Extension Points	595	(24)
The Extension Point Mechanism	595	(2)
Defining an Extension Point	597	(10)
Creating an extension point	597	(2)
Creating an extension point schema	599	(2)
Extension point elements and attributes	601	(4)
Extension point element grammar	605	(2)
Code Behind an Extension Point	607	(7)
Parsing extension information	607	(2)
Constructing proxies	609	(2)
Creating executable extensions	611	(2)
Cleanup	613	(1)
Extension Point Documentation	614	(1)
Using the Extension Point	615	(2)
RFRS Considerations	617	(1)
Document extension points (RFRS 3.10.5)	617	(1)
Log errors (RFRS 5.3.10.1)	618	(1)
Summary	618	(1)
Features, Branding, and Updates	619	(32)
Feature Projects	620	(11)
Creating a new feature project	621	(2)
Feature manifest files	623	(1)
Feature manifest editor	624	(7)
Branding	631	(6)
The about.html file	632	(1)
The about.ini file	633	(2)
Product branding	635	(2)
Update Sites	637	(10)
Creating an update site project	637	(2)
The site.xml file	639	(3)
The update Web site	642	(1)
Revisiting the feature manifest	643	(1)
Accessing the update site	643	(4)
RFRS Considerations	647	(1)
Do not override product branding (RFRS 3.1.8)	647	(1)
Branded feature visibility (RFRS 5.3.1.9)	647	(1)
Include attribution information (RFRS 5.3.1.10)	647	(1)
about.html file contents (RFRS 5.3.1.11)	648	(1)
Splash screen restrictions (RFRS 5.3.1.12)	648	(1)
Summary	648	(3)
Building a Product	651	(58)
A Brief Introduction to Ant	651	(20)
Build projects	651	(1)
Build targets	652	(1)
Build tasks	653	(4)
Build properties	657	(7)
<antcall> task	664	(2)
macrodef	666	(2)
Headless Ant	668	(1)
Ant extensions	669	(2)
Building the Favorites Product	671	(36)
Auto-generated build script	671	(5)
Refactoring the Favorites build script	676	(13)
Compiling during the build process	689	(2)
Single versus multiple binaries	691	(1)
Editing with different versions of Eclipse	692	(1)
Building against different versions of Eclipse	693	(8)
Classpath tools	701	(2)
Building against Eclipse 3.0	703	(2)
Retargeting source code	705	(1)
Version checking	705	(2)
Building for internationalization	707	(1)
Summary	707	(2)
Advanced Topics	709	(42)
Advanced Search---Reference Projects	710	(1)
Accessing Internal Code	711	(3)
Eclipse newsgroup	711	(1)
Bugzilla---Eclipse bug tracking system	712	(1)
Options for accessing internal code	712	(1)
How Eclipse is different	713	(1)
Related plug-ins	713	(1)
Using fragments	714	(1)
Adapters	714	(4)
IAdaptable	714	(1)
Using adapters	715	(1)
Adapter factory	715	(3)
IWorkbenchAdapter	718	(1)
Opening a Browser or Creating an Email	718	(5)
IWorkbenchBrowserSupport	718	(2)
LaunchURL	720	(1)
OpenEmailAction	720	(3)
Types Specified in an Extension Point	723	(4)
Parameterized types	724	(2)
Referencing a class in a different plug-in	726	(1)
Modifying Eclipse to Find Part Identifiers	727	(5)
Modifying the Eclipse base	727	(2)
Creating the global action	729	(2)
Testing the new utility	731	(1)
Submitting the change to Eclipse	731	(1)
Label Decorators	732	(7)
Declaring a label decorator	733	(1)
ILightweightLabelDecorator	734	(2)
Decorative label decorators	736	(1)
IDecoratorManager	737	(2)
Background Tasks---Jobs API	739	(3)
Plug-in ClassLoaders	742	(5)
Early Startup	747	(1)
Managing early startup	747	(1)
Disabling early startup	748	(1)
Rich Client Platform	748	(1)
Conclusion	749	(2)
Appendix A Eclipse Plug-ins and Resources	751	(14)
Plug-ins	751	(9)
CodePro AnalytiX and CodePro PlusPak	751	(2)
EclipseProfiler	753	(1)
EclipseUML	754	(1)
MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench	755	(2)
WindowBuilder Pro	757	(2)
XMLBuddy	759	(1)
Resources	760	(5)
Eclipse.org	760	(2)
Eclipse Plug-in Central	762	(1)
Eclipse plug-in site	762	(1)
Eclipse wiki wiki	762	(1)
EclipseCon	762	(1)
ANTLR plug-in for Eclipse	762	(1)
Bugzilla plug-in	762	(1)
Coloring editor	762	(1)
Eclipse Easter eggs	763	(1)
IBM Alphaworks on Eclipse	763	(1)
IBM Eclipse research	763	(1)
PHP plug-in for Eclipse	763	(1)
QNX's Momentics	763	(1)
QuickShare: XP programming for Eclipse	763	(1)
Sangam: XP programming for Eclipse	763	(2)
Appendix B Ready for Rational Software	765	(2)
Index	767

Excerpts

When we were first exposed to Eclipse back in late 1999, we were struck by the magnitude of the problem IBM was trying to solve. IBM wanted to unify all its development environments on a single code base. At the time, the company was using a mix of technology composed of a hodgepodge of C/C++, Java, and Smalltalk. Many of IBM's most important tools, including the award-winning Visual-Age for Java IDE, were actually written in Smalltalk--a wonderful language for building sophisticated tools, but one that was rapidly losing market share to languages like Java. While IBM had one of the world's largest collections of Smalltalk developers, there wasn't a great deal of industry support for it outside of IBM, and there were very few independent software vendors (ISVs) qualified to create Smalltalk-based add-ons. Meanwhile, Java was winning the hearts and minds of developers world-wide with its promise of easy portability across a wide range of platforms, while providing the rich application programming interface (API) needed to build the latest generation of Web-based business applications. More important, Java was an object-oriented (OO) language, which meant that IBM could leverage the large body of highly skilled object-oriented developers it had built up over the years of creating Smalltalk-based tools. In fact, IBM took its premiere Object Technology International (OTI) group, which had been responsible for creating IBM's VisualAge Smalltalk and VisualAge Java environments (VisualAge Smalltalk was the first of the VisualAge brand family and VisualAge Java was built using it), and tasked the group with creating a highly extensible integrated development environment (IDE) construction set based in Java. Eclipse was the happy result. OTI was able to apply its highly evolved OO skills to produce an IDE unmatched in power, flexibility, and extensibility. The group was able to replicate most of the features that had made Smalltalk-based IDEs so popular the decade before, while simultaneously pushing the state of the art in IDE development ahead by an order of magnitude. The Java world had never seen anything as powerful or as compelling as Eclipse, and it now stands, with Microsoft's .NET, as one of the world's premier development environments. That alone makes Eclipse a perfect platform for developers wishing to get their tools out to as wide an audience as possible. The fact that Eclipse is completely free and open source is icing on the cake. An open, extensible IDE base that is available for free to anyone with a computer is a powerful motivator to the prospective tool developer. It certainly was to us. At Instantiations and earlier at ObjectShare, we had spent the better part of a decade as entrepreneurs focused on building add-on tools for various IDEs. We had started with building add-ons for Digitalk's Smalltalk/V, migrated to developing tools for IBM's VisualAge Smalltalk, and eventually ended up creating tools for IBM's VisualAge Java (including our award-winning VA Assist product and our jFactor product, one of the world's first Java refactoring tools). Every one of these environments provided a means to extend the IDE, but they were generally not well-documented and certainly not standardized in any way. Small market shares (relative to tools such as VisualBasic) and an eclectic user base also afflicted these environments and, by extension, us. As an Advanced IBM Business Partner, we were fortunate to have built a long and trusted relationship with the folks at IBM responsible for the creation of Eclipse. That relationship meant that we were in a unique position to be briefed on the technology and to start using it on a daily basis nearly a year and half before the rest of the world even heard about it. When IBM finally announced Eclipse to the world in mid-2001, our team at Instantiations had built some of the first demo applications IBM had to show. Later that year when IBM released