bundles/org.eclipse.platform.doc.isv/guide/arch_struct.htm - platform/eclipse.platform.common - Git at Google

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 <H2>
 Platform SDK roadmap</H2>

 <H3>Runtime core</H3>

 <P >
 The platform runtime core implements the runtime engine that starts the platform base and dynamically discovers and runs plug-ins. A
 <b> plug-in</b> is a structured component that describes itself to the system using
 an OSGi manifest (<b>MANIFEST.MF</b>) file and a plug-in manifest
 (<b>plugin.xml</b>) file. The platform maintains a registry of installed plug-ins and the function they provide.</P>

 <P >
 A general goal of the runtime is that the end user should not pay a memory or performance penalty for plug-ins that are installed, but not used. A plug-in can be installed and added to the registry, but the plug-in will not be activated unless
 a function provided by the plug-in has been requested according to the user's activity.</P>
 <P>The platform runtime is implemented using the OSGi services model. While implementation details of the runtime may not be
 important to many application developers, those already familiar with OSGi will recognize that an Eclipse plug-in is, in effect,
 an OSGi bundle.</P>
 <P >
 The best way to get a feel for the runtime system is to build a plug-in. See
 <a HREF="firstplugin.htm" CLASS="XRef"> Plug it in: Hello World meets the workbench</a> to get started
 building a plug-in.  To understand the nuts and bolts of the runtime system, see
 <a HREF="runtime.htm">Runtime overview</a>.</P>

 <H3>
 Resource management</H3>
 <P >
 The resource management plug-in defines a common resource model for managing the
 artifacts of tool plug-ins. Plug-ins can create and modify <b>projects</b>, <b>folders</b>, and
 <b>files</b> for organizing and storing development artifacts on disk.</p>
 <P >
 <a HREF="resInt.htm" CLASS="XRef">Resources overview</a> provides an overview of the resource management system.</P>


 <H3>
 Workbench UI</H3>
 <P >
 The workbench UI plug-in implements the workbench UI and defines a number of extension points that allow
 other plug-ins to contribute menu and toolbar actions, drag and drop operations, dialogs, wizards,
 and custom views and editors.</P>
 <P >
 <a HREF="workbench.htm" CLASS="XRef">Plugging into the workbench</a> introduces the workbench
 UI extension points and API.</P>
 <P >
 Additional UI plug-ins define frameworks that are generally useful for user
 interface development.&nbsp; These frameworks were used to develop the workbench
 itself.&nbsp; Using the frameworks not only eases the development of a plug-in's
 user interface, but ensures that plug-ins have a common look and feel and a consistent
 level of workbench integration.
 </P>

 <P >
 The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a low-level, operating system independent toolkit that supports platform integration and portable API.
 It is described in
 <a HREF="swt.htm" CLASS="XRef">Standard Widget Toolkit</a>.</P>
 <P >
 The JFace UI framework provides higher-level application constructs for supporting dialogs, wizards, actions, user preferences, and widget management.&nbsp;
 The functionality in JFace is described in
 <a HREF="dialogs.htm" CLASS="XRef"> Dialogs and wizards</a> and
 <a HREF="jface.htm" CLASS="XRef">JFace: UI framework for plug-ins</a>.</P>

 <H3>Team support</H3>
 <p>
 The Team plug-ins allow other plug-ins to define and register implementations
 for team programming, repository access, and versioning.&nbsp; The Eclipse SDK
 includes a CVS plug-in that uses the team support to provide CVS client support
 in the SDK.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

 <p>Team support is described in <a href="team.htm">Team support</a>.</p>

 <H3>Debug support</H3>
 <p>
 The Debug plug-ins allow other plug-ins to implement language specific program
 launchers and debuggers.&nbsp;</p>

 <p>Debug support is described in <a href="debug.htm">Program debug and launching
 support</a>.</p>

 <h3 >
 Help System</h3>
 <P >The Help plug-in implements a platform optimized help web server and
 document integration facility.&nbsp; It defines extension points that plug-ins
 can use to contribute help or other plug-in documentation as browsable
 books.&nbsp; The documentation web server includes special facilities to allow
 plug-ins to reference files by using logical, plug-in based URLs instead of file
 system URLs.</P>

 <P >Additional features are provided for integrating help topics in product
 level documentation configurations.</P>
 <P >The help facility is described in <a href="help.htm">Plugging in help</a>.</P>

 <H3>
 Java development tools (JDT)</H3>
 <P >
 The Java development tools (JDT) plug-ins extend the platform workbench by
 providing specialized features for editing, viewing, compiling, debugging, and
 running Java code.</P>
 <P >The JDT is installed as a set of plug-ins that are included in the SDK.&nbsp;
 The Java Development User Guide describes how to use the Java tools.&nbsp; The JDT Plug-in
 Developer Guide describes the structure and API of the JDT.</P>

 <H3>
 Plug-in Development Environment (PDE)</H3>
 <P >The Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) supplies tools that automate the
 creation, manipulation, debugging, and deploying of plug-ins.&nbsp; </P>
 <P >The PDE is installed as a set of plug-ins that are included in the
 SDK.&nbsp; The PDE Guide describes how to use the environment.</P>


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	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"><HTML>
	<HEAD>

	<meta name="copyright" content="Copyright (c) IBM Corporation and others 2000, 2005. This page is made available under license. For full details see the LEGAL in the documentation book that contains this page." >

	<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1">
	<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Style-Type" CONTENT="text/css">

	<LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="../book.css" CHARSET="ISO-8859-1" TYPE="text/css">
	<TITLE>Platform SDK roadmap</TITLE>

	<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" HREF="../book.css">
	</HEAD>
	<BODY BGCOLOR="#ffffff">
	<H2>
	Platform SDK roadmap</H2>

	<H3>Runtime core</H3>

	<P >
	The platform runtime core implements the runtime engine that starts the platform base and dynamically discovers and runs plug-ins. A
	<b> plug-in</b> is a structured component that describes itself to the system using
	an OSGi manifest (<b>MANIFEST.MF</b>) file and a plug-in manifest
	(<b>plugin.xml</b>) file. The platform maintains a registry of installed plug-ins and the function they provide.</P>

	<P >
	A general goal of the runtime is that the end user should not pay a memory or performance penalty for plug-ins that are installed, but not used. A plug-in can be installed and added to the registry, but the plug-in will not be activated unless
	a function provided by the plug-in has been requested according to the user's activity.</P>
	<P>The platform runtime is implemented using the OSGi services model. While implementation details of the runtime may not be
	important to many application developers, those already familiar with OSGi will recognize that an Eclipse plug-in is, in effect,
	an OSGi bundle.</P>
	<P >
	The best way to get a feel for the runtime system is to build a plug-in. See
	<a HREF="firstplugin.htm" CLASS="XRef"> Plug it in: Hello World meets the workbench</a> to get started
	building a plug-in. To understand the nuts and bolts of the runtime system, see
	<a HREF="runtime.htm">Runtime overview</a>.</P>

	<H3>
	Resource management</H3>
	<P >
	The resource management plug-in defines a common resource model for managing the
	artifacts of tool plug-ins. Plug-ins can create and modify <b>projects</b>, <b>folders</b>, and
	<b>files</b> for organizing and storing development artifacts on disk.</p>
	<P >
	<a HREF="resInt.htm" CLASS="XRef">Resources overview</a> provides an overview of the resource management system.</P>


	<H3>
	Workbench UI</H3>
	<P >
	The workbench UI plug-in implements the workbench UI and defines a number of extension points that allow
	other plug-ins to contribute menu and toolbar actions, drag and drop operations, dialogs, wizards,
	and custom views and editors.</P>
	<P >
	<a HREF="workbench.htm" CLASS="XRef">Plugging into the workbench</a> introduces the workbench
	UI extension points and API.</P>
	<P >
	Additional UI plug-ins define frameworks that are generally useful for user
	interface development.  These frameworks were used to develop the workbench
	itself.  Using the frameworks not only eases the development of a plug-in's
	user interface, but ensures that plug-ins have a common look and feel and a consistent
	level of workbench integration.
	</P>

	<P >
	The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a low-level, operating system independent toolkit that supports platform integration and portable API.
	It is described in
	<a HREF="swt.htm" CLASS="XRef">Standard Widget Toolkit</a>.</P>
	<P >
	The JFace UI framework provides higher-level application constructs for supporting dialogs, wizards, actions, user preferences, and widget management.
	The functionality in JFace is described in
	<a HREF="dialogs.htm" CLASS="XRef"> Dialogs and wizards</a> and
	<a HREF="jface.htm" CLASS="XRef">JFace: UI framework for plug-ins</a>.</P>

	<H3>Team support</H3>
	<p>
	The Team plug-ins allow other plug-ins to define and register implementations
	for team programming, repository access, and versioning.  The Eclipse SDK
	includes a CVS plug-in that uses the team support to provide CVS client support
	in the SDK.  </p>

	<p>Team support is described in <a href="team.htm">Team support</a>.</p>

	<H3>Debug support</H3>
	<p>
	The Debug plug-ins allow other plug-ins to implement language specific program
	launchers and debuggers. </p>

	<p>Debug support is described in <a href="debug.htm">Program debug and launching
	support</a>.</p>

	<h3 >
	Help System</h3>
	<P >The Help plug-in implements a platform optimized help web server and
	document integration facility.  It defines extension points that plug-ins
	can use to contribute help or other plug-in documentation as browsable
	books.  The documentation web server includes special facilities to allow
	plug-ins to reference files by using logical, plug-in based URLs instead of file
	system URLs.</P>

	<P >Additional features are provided for integrating help topics in product
	level documentation configurations.</P>
	<P >The help facility is described in <a href="help.htm">Plugging in help</a>.</P>

	<H3>
	Java development tools (JDT)</H3>
	<P >
	The Java development tools (JDT) plug-ins extend the platform workbench by
	providing specialized features for editing, viewing, compiling, debugging, and
	running Java code.</P>
	<P >The JDT is installed as a set of plug-ins that are included in the SDK.
	The Java Development User Guide describes how to use the Java tools.  The JDT Plug-in
	Developer Guide describes the structure and API of the JDT.</P>

	<H3>
	Plug-in Development Environment (PDE)</H3>
	<P >The Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) supplies tools that automate the
	creation, manipulation, debugging, and deploying of plug-ins.  </P>
	<P >The PDE is installed as a set of plug-ins that are included in the
	SDK.  The PDE Guide describes how to use the environment.</P>



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