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| <title>Glossary of terms</title> |
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| <h1> |
| Glossary of terms</h1> |
| It can be confusing when one person refers to the same thing with different |
| terms, and downright misleading if they refer to different things using |
| the same term. That's why it's important to choose the right words when |
| referring to things in comments, code, and documentation. |
| <p><b>Eclipse</b></p> |
| <blockquote>Eclipse is the name for the overall project supporting the |
| construction of integrated tools for developing applications. It represents |
| a collection of related <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/main.html">projects</a> |
| that include the <a href="#Platform"> Eclipse Platform,</a> the <a href="#JDT"> Java development tools |
| (JDT)</a>, and |
| the <a href="#PDE"> Plug-in Development Environment (PDE)</a>.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="Eclipse Platform"></a><b>Eclipse Platform</b> |
| <blockquote>Eclipse Platform is the name for the core frameworks |
| and services upon which plug-in extensions are created. It provides the |
| runtime in which plug-ins are loaded and run. In order to use the term |
| with the right degree of (im)precision, it is useful to know some things |
| about the Platform. First off, the Eclipse Platform itself is not really |
| a true product that would ship by itself. The Platform's direct consumers |
| are tool builders, or ISVs, since they add the value to the Eclipse Platform |
| that makes it useful to people. |
| <br> |
| The Eclipse Platform is divided up into <i>Core </i>and <i>UI</i>. |
| Anything classified as "UI" needs a window system, whereas things classified |
| as "Core" can run "headless". The UI portion of the Eclipse Platform is |
| known as the <a href="#Workbench">Workbench</a>. The core portion of the |
| Eclipse Platform is simply called the <a href="#Core">Platform Core</a>, |
| or Core. |
| <br> |
| So the Eclipse Platform is just the nucleus around which tool builders |
| build tool plug-ins. |
| </blockquote> |
| <b>Eclipse SDK</b> |
| <blockquote>The Eclipse SDK is the <a href="#Eclipse Platform">Eclipse |
| Platform</a>, <a href="#JDT">JDT</a>, and <a href="#PDE">PDE</a>. |
| In addition to the Platform, the SDK provides the development tools required |
| to, among other things, enable Eclipse to be a development environment |
| for itself.</blockquote> |
| <p><a NAME="Platform"></a><b>Platform - </b>Short for "<a href="#Eclipse Platform">Eclipse |
| Platform</a>".</p> |
| <a NAME="RCP"></a><b>Rich Client Platform (RCP)</b> |
| <blockquote>A subset of the <a href="#Eclipse Platform">Eclipse |
| Platform</a> that forms a generic application framework, |
| rather than a framework for building development tools. This subset does |
| not contain the Resources plug-in, or any UI relating to resources. |
| </blockquote> |
| <p><a NAME="Workbench"></a><b>Workbench</b> - Short for "Eclipse Platform |
| UI".</p> |
| <blockquote>The Workbench is a high-level UI framework for building products |
| with sophisticated UIs built from pluggable components. The Workbench is |
| built atop <a href="#JFace">JFace</a>, <a href="#SWT">SWT</a>, and the |
| <a href="#Core">Platform |
| Core</a>.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="Core"></a><b>Core</b> - Short for "Eclipse Platform Core". |
| <blockquote>All the UI-free infrastructure of the <a href="#Eclipse Platform">Eclipse |
| Platform</a>. The major divisions are: platform runtime and plug-in management, |
| workspaces and resource management, and version and configuration management.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="Runtime"></a><b>Runtime</b> - Short for "Eclipse Platform Core |
| Runtime". |
| <blockquote>The lowest level part of the <a href="#Core">Platform Core</a>, |
| responsible for the plug-in registry and plug-ins. Note that the Platform |
| Core Runtime does not include workspaces and resources (they're in the |
| Resources plug-in).</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="Workspace"></a><b>Workspace</b> |
| <blockquote>A workspace is the general umbrella for managing resources |
| in the Eclipse Platform. Note that workspaces and resources are an optional |
| part of the Platform; some configurations of the Platform will not have |
| a workspace.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="UI"></a><b>UI</b> - Short for "Eclipse Platform UI". |
| <blockquote>All-inclusive term for the UI portion of the <a href="#Eclipse Platform">Eclipse |
| Platform</a>.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="JFace"></a><b>JFace</b> |
| <blockquote>JFace is the mid-level UI framework useful for building complex |
| UI pieces such as property viewers. JFace works in conjunction with <a href="#SWT">SWT</a>.</blockquote> |
| <a NAME="SWT"></a><b>SWT</b> |
| <blockquote>SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) is a small, fast widget toolkit |
| with a portable API and a native implementation. Currently, SWT is available on |
| Windows, Linux (GTK), AIX (GTK), Solaris (GTK), |
| HP-UX (GTK), and Mac OS X (Cocoa).</blockquote> |
| <a name="JDT"><b>JDT</b> |
| </a> |
| <blockquote>Java development tools (n.b. "development tools" in |
| lowercase, for legal reasons) adds Java program development capability to the |
| Eclipse Platform.</blockquote> |
| |
| <a name="PDE"><b>PDE</b> |
| </a> |
| <blockquote>The Plug-in Development Environment adds specialized tools for |
| developing Eclipse plug-ins.</blockquote> |
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