[eclipse-dev] Eclipse Platform 3.1 themes

[John Wiegand <John_Wiegand@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In planning the next release of the
Eclipse Platform, JDT, and PDE, we need to identify the general themes
that will serve to guide and organize the work. Each theme emphasizes a
different aspect of the Eclipse platform that is key to its continued growth
and success.

The proposed themes are (in no particular
order):

(1) Built to last - Eclipse has always
been a platform for delivering integrated software tools. With a large
and growing base of both free and commercial offerings based on Eclipse,
it's critical for continued success to maintain API stability and ensure
that the platform scales well. This theme includes work to measure and
improve the performance of key operations under various loads (number of
installed plug-ins, number of resources in the workspace, etc.). This theme
also includes consolidation activities where groundwork was laid in 3.0
but needs to be completed and brought into full use.

(2) Simple to use - The Eclipse platform
needs to not only provide the features that advanced users demand, but
also be something that most users find simple to use. This theme includes
ease-of-use reviews of existing features, and work that helps make Eclipse-based
products simple to use for users with widely-varying backgrounds and skill
sets.

(3) Rich client platform - The Eclipse
RCP is a Java-based application framework for the desktop. Building on
the Eclipse runtime and the modular plug-in story, it is possible to build
applications ranging from command line tools to feature-rich applications
that take full advantage of SWT's native platform integration and the many
other reusable components that the Eclipse platform provides. This theme
includes work to enhance the RCP, and to provide PDE support for developing
and deploying RCP-based applications.

(4) J2SE 5 support - This theme covers
work to add full support for J2SE 5 to JDT.

(5) Large-scale development - Large
software projects are long-term collaborations involving large teams of
developers playing a variety of roles. In order to be effective for large
projects, software tools and processes must fit well into this reality.
This theme includes laying the groundwork in the Eclipse Platform that
will enable large teams to make effective use of Eclipse-based products.

(6) Broadening the community - This
theme includes work that grows deeper roots into the various OS-specific
communities, spreads Eclipse to additional operating environments, and
builds bridges to other open source communities.

Over the next few weeks we need to put
together the initial draft of the Eclipse Project 3.1 plan. Component leads
should work with the committers to draw up potential plan items fitting
the above themes. While a few plan items may lie outside any of these themes,
most of the work we expect to do for 3.1 should fall under one (or more)
of these themes. The PMC will work directly with the component leads to
consolidate and refine their inputs into the initial draft plan, which
will be posted to the eclipse-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list as soon as it's
ready.

Eclipse Platform PMC