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| <TITLE>Platform SDK roadmap</TITLE> |
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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 functionality 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="PLUGINS_ROOT/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/concepts/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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