Re: [platform-ui-dev] Clarifying activities in 3.0

[Tod Creasey <Tod_Creasey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

1) No. It assumes that there will be a set of initial definition in the 
product and that others may show up as a result of upgrades. Remember that 
activities are a way to filter functionality. When you add functionality 
it is likely because you want to use it so I wouldn't expect there would 
be an activity filtering.

As far as expanding an activity definition to include more entries the 
answer is most definately - this is one of our main goals. You can define 
activities in as many plug-ins as you like so you can add new activities 
or extend existing activities as much as you like.

2) We don't subtract function. My suggestion is to define a Java Student 
category that is a subset of Java Developer. This is much easier then 
trying to remove every thing that may be added to a larger set.

We are putting together a FAQ for this right now and I'll include my 
answers here as well. If you are at EclipseCon please feel free to look me 
out an ask some questions - I'll be around all week. I am also giving a 
talk on this Tuesday morning at EclipseCon.

Tod






"Jim D'Anjou" <danjou@xxxxxxxxxx>
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01/14/2004 07:55 PM
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Having read the recently updated Activities and Contexts documents and the 
numerous entries in this mailing list, I have some questions and comments.

1. Regarding the intent for the product manager to define activities, does 
that not assume that the product is more/less static and won't be 
enrichened with other features perhaps from other providers? For example, 
if I add some spiffy modeling tool feature to the eclipse platform 
shouldn't the owner of that feature be encouraged to define activities 
(and categories) relevant to that feature (this is identical to the 
earlier question on JDT and PDE). In the eclipse world the client's 
product is often the aggregate of features from mulitiple providers. 
Another variant is the case when product consumes the function of another 
and adds more stuff (the IBM WebSphere Studio Russian doll model).

2. How do I filter out subsets of function? Imagine that I want to 
simplify the JDT for Java students (I encounter this all the time when I 
visit universities incorporating Eclipse into their curriculum). I want a 
category called "Java Student" and I want a simplified perspective and a 
simplified set of actions (incidentally, can I filter programmatically 
created actions that were not created through an extension point. They are 
not "identifiable".) . It is not clear how I might define a pattern that 
subtracts function or create a pattern with very specific function (I 
assume it has something to do with the local identifier but the syntax and 
overall construction is not understood). I am sure this can be done I just 
don't understand some of the syntatical details.

3. It was stated that Context definitions can be filtered by activity. How 
is that done? XML or Java API or both? The mailing list also indicates 
that this may no longer be true so perhaps the question is not relevant 
anymore.

4. I share the comment by Ed Burnette as I am in a similar role of trying 
to explain this stuff to others.

Jim