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Core

About the core component

The core component provides basic platform infrastructure that does not involve any UI. It is currently comprised of the following principal plug-ins:

  • org.eclipse.core.contenttype - Support for defining and managing file content types
  • org.eclipse.core.expressions - A generic XML-based expression language used in the markup of various extension points.
  • org.eclipse.core.filesystem - A generic file system API
  • org.eclipse.core.jobs - Infrastructure for concurrent programming in Eclipse
  • org.eclipse.core.resources - Management of resources - projects, folders, and files
  • org.eclipse.core.runtime - Formerly the foundation of the platform, this plug-in has largely been supplanted by the Equinox runtime

These plug-ins are excruciatingly generic -- each provides a basic set of services, and API and extension points for managing and interacting with those services. The contents of resources are never examined in any domain-specific way and the Core can run equally well with and without a UI.

Note that much of the function previously provided by core now falls under the Equinox OSGi project

Get involved!

If you are interested in participating in the development of the Core component, check out the developer's mailing list: platform-core-dev@eclipse.org. Chat with people there about your problems and interests, and find out what you can do to help.

In particular, if you are interested in system level code and are intimately familiar with Java classloading, thread management, filesystem resource management on a variety of operating systems, Windows/Linux filesystem callback management, or programming for speed/space, the Core team wants to talk to you.

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