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| <h1> |
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| Eclipse Project<br> |
| DRAFT 3.0 Plan</h1> |
| |
| <p>Last revised Thursday May 22, 2003 (replaces the <a href="http://eclipse.org/eclipse/development/eclipse_project_plan_2_2_20021220.html">draft |
| 2.2 plan of Dec. 20, 2002</a>; <img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> |
| marks interesting changes since the <a href="http://eclipse.org/eclipse/development/eclipse_project_plan_2_1.html">final |
| 2.1 plan</a>)<br> |
| <br> |
| <i> Please send comments about this draft plan to the </i><a href="mailto:eclipse-dev@eclipse.org">eclipse-dev@eclipse.org</a> |
| <i>developer mailing list.</i> </p> |
| |
| <p>This document lays out the feature and API set for the next feature release |
| of Eclipse after 2.1, designated release 3.0 (<a href="why_eclipse_3_0.html">Why |
| Eclipse "3.0"?</a>). |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#Deliverables">Release deliverables</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Milestones">Release milestones</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#TargetOperatingEnvironments">Target operating environments</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Compatibility">Compatibility with previous releases</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#Platform">Eclipse Platform subproject</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#JDT">Java development tools (JDT) subproject</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#PDE">Plug-in development environment (PDE) subproject</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>Plans do not materialize out of nowhere, nor are they entirely static. To ensure |
| the planning process is transparent and open to the entire Eclipse community, |
| we (the Eclipse PMC) post plans in an embryonic form and revise them throughout |
| the release cycle. |
| <p>The first part of the plan |
| deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, |
| target operating environments, and release-to-release compatibility. These are |
| all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to |
| change. |
| <p>The remainder of the plan consists of plan items for the various Eclipse subprojects. |
| Each plan item covers a feature or API that is to be added to Eclipse, or some |
| aspect of Eclipse that is to be improved. Each plan item has its own entry in |
| the Eclipse bugzilla database, with a title and a concise summary (usually a |
| single paragraph) that explains the work item at a suitably high enough level |
| so that everyone can readily understand what the work item is without having |
| to understand the nitty-gritty detail. |
| <p>Not all plan items represent the same amount of work; some may be quite large, |
| others, quite small. Some plan items may involve work that is localized to a |
| single Platform component; others may involve coordinated changes to several |
| components; other may pervade the entire Platform. Although some plan items |
| are for work that is more pressing that others, the plan items appear in no |
| particular order. |
| <p>With the previous release as the starting point, this is the plan for how we |
| will enhance and improve it. Fixing bugs, improving test coverage, documentation, |
| examples, performance, usability, etc. are considered routine ongoing maintenance activities and are |
| not included in this plan unless they would also involve a significant change |
| to the API or feature set, or involve a significant amount of work. All interesting |
| feature work is accounted for in this plan. |
| <p>The current status of each plan item is |
| noted: |
| <ul> |
| <li><b>Committed</b> plan item - A committed plan item is one that we have decided |
| to address for the release.</li> |
| <li><b>Proposed</b> plan item - A proposed plan item is one that we are considering |
| addressing for the release. Although we are actively investigating it, we |
| are not yet in a position to commit to it, or to say that we won't be able |
| to address it. After due consideration, a proposal will either be committed, |
| deferred, or rejected.</li> |
| <li><b>Deferred</b> plan item - A reasonable proposal that will not make it |
| in to this release for some reason is marked as deferred with a brief note |
| as to why it was deferred. Deferred plan items may resurface as committed |
| plan items at a later point.</li> |
| <li><b>Rejected</b> plan item - Plan items that were proposed but judged unworkable |
| are marked as rejected plan items, with an accompanying summary of why they |
| were dismissed. Keeping track of rejected items avoids repeating the discussion.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <h2><a name="Deliverables"></a>Release deliverables</h2> |
| |
| <p>The release deliverables have the same form as previous releases, namely: |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Source code release for Eclipse Project, available as versions tagged "R3_0" |
| in the Eclipse Project <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/">CVS repository</a>.</li> |
| <li>Eclipse Project SDK (includes Platform, JDT, and PDE source zips) (downloadable).</li> |
| <li>Eclipse Platform runtime binary distribution (downloadable).</li> |
| <li>JDT runtime binary distribution (downloadable).</li> |
| <li>Eclipse SDK Examples (downloadable).</li> |
| <li>SWT distribution (downloadable).</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h2><a name="Milestones"></a>Release milestones</h2> |
| |
| <p>Release milestone occurring at roughly 6 week intervals exist to facilitate |
| coarse-grained planning and staging. The milestones for 2003 are:</p> |
| |
| <ul> |
| <li>Friday June 6, 2003 - Milestone 1 (3.0 M1) - stable build reflecting progress</li> |
| <li>Friday July 18, 2003 - Milestone 2 (3.0 M2) - stable build reflecting progress</li> |
| <li>Friday August 29, 2003 - Milestone 3 (3.0 M3) - stable build reflecting |
| progress</li> |
| <li>Friday October 10, 2003 - Milestone 4 (3.0 M4) - initial API freeze - stable |
| build reflecting progress</li> |
| <li>Friday November 21, 2003 - Milestone 5 (3.0 M5) - APIs frozen - stable build |
| reflecting progress</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <p> Additional 2004 milestones will be added later. Our target is to complete |
| 3.0 in 2Q2004. All release deliverables will be available for download as soon |
| as the release has been tested and validated in the target operating configurations |
| listed below.</p> |
| |
| <h2><a name="TargetOperatingEnvironments"></a>Target Operating Environments</h2> |
| |
| |
| |
| <p>In order to remain current, each Eclipse release targets reasonably current |
| versions of the underlying operating environments.</p> |
| |
| <p>Most of the Eclipse SDK is "pure" Java code and has no direct dependence |
| on the underlying operating system. The chief dependence is therefore on the |
| Java 2 Platform itself. <img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> |
| The 3.0 release of the Eclipse Project is written and compiled against version |
| 1.4 of the Java 2 Platform APIs, and targeted to run on version 1.4 of the Java |
| 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition.</p> |
| <p><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> There are many different |
| implementations of the Java 2 Platform running atop a variety of operating systems. |
| We focus Eclipse testing on a handful of popular <span class="header">combinations |
| of operating system and Java 2 Platform; these are our <em>reference platforms</em>. |
| Eclipse undoubtedly runs fine in many operating environments beyond the reference |
| platforms we test. However, since we do not systematically test them we cannot |
| vouch for them. Problems encountered when running Eclipse on non-reference platform |
| that cannot be recreated on any reference platform will be given lower priority |
| than problems with running Eclipse on a reference platform.</span></p> |
| <p>Eclipse SDK 3.0 is tested and validated on the following reference platforms |
| (this list is updated over the course of the release cycle):</p> |
| <table width="95%" border="1"> |
| <tr> |
| <td width="20%"><b>Operating system</b></td> |
| <td width="8%"><b>Processor architecture</b></td> |
| <td width="6%"><b>Window system</b></td> |
| <td width="66%"><b>Java 2 Platform</b></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows XP</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>Win32</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, version 1.4.1_02 for Microsoft Windows</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Microsoft Windows XP</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>Win32</td> |
| <td>IBM 32-bit SDK for Windows, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.0</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>RedHat Linux 9 Professional</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>GTK</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.1_02 for Linux x86</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>RedHat Linux 9 Professional</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>GTK</td> |
| <td>IBM Developer Kit for Linux, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.0</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>SuSE Linux 8.2</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>GTK</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.1_02 for Linux x86</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>SuSE Linux 8.2</td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>GTK</td> |
| <td>IBM Developer Kit for Linux, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4.0</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Sun Solaris 8</td> |
| <td>SPARC</td> |
| <td>Motif</td> |
| <td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.1_02 for Solaris SPARC</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>HP HP-UX 11i</td> |
| <td>hp9000<br> |
| PA-RISC</td> |
| <td>Motif</td> |
| <td><span class="header">HP-UX SDK for the Java 2 platform, version 1.4.1.01 |
| for hp9000 PA-RISC</span></td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>IBM AIX 5.1</td> |
| <td>PowerPC</td> |
| <td>Motif</td> |
| <td>IBM Developer Kit for AIX, Java 2 Technology Edition, version 1.4</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>Apple Mac OS X 10.2</td> |
| <td>PowerPC</td> |
| <td>Carbon</td> |
| <td>Java 2 Standard Edition 1.4.1 for Mac OS X</td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td>QNX Neutrino RTOS <i>[version TDB]</i></td> |
| <td>Intel x86</td> |
| <td>Photon</td> |
| <td>IBM J9 VM for QNX <i>[version TDB]</i></td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| <h4>Internationalization</h4> |
| <p>The Eclipse Platform is designed as the basis for internationalized products. |
| The user interface elements provided by the Eclipse SDK components, including |
| dialogs and error messages, are externalized. The English strings are provided |
| as the default resource bundles.</p> |
| <p>Latin-1 locales are supported by the Eclipse SDK on all of the above |
| operating environments; DBCS locales are supported by the Eclipse SDK on the |
| Windows, GTK, and Motif window systems; BIDI locales are supported by the |
| Eclipse SDK only on Windows operating environments. |
| <p>The Eclipse SDK supports GB 18030, the new Chinese code page standard, on Windows |
| XP and 2000, and Linux. |
| <p>German and Japanese locales are tested.</p> |
| <h4>BIDI support</h4> |
| <p>The Eclipse SDK is a development environment targeted at technical professionals |
| - not an end user application. However, the Eclipse SDK tools will permit technical |
| professionals who are working in English to build Hebrew/Arabic end user Java |
| programs which are themselves not based on the Eclipse SDK. The BIDI support |
| in the Eclipse SDK allows a Java programmer to work with BIDI strings, code |
| comments, etc. but the Eclipse SDK itself is not designed to be localized for |
| BIDI locales and its widget orientation can not be changed.</p> |
| <p><i>IMPORTANT: The above BIDI support is available only on Windows platforms.</i></p> |
| <h2><a name="Compatibility"></a>Compatibility with Previous Releases</h2> |
| |
| <p> <img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> Eclipse 3.0 will not |
| be fully compatible with Eclipse 2.0 and 2.1.</p> |
| |
| <h3> Compatibility of Release 3.0 with 2.0 and 2.1</h3> |
| |
| |
| <p>We have decided that the next release of Eclipse will not be fully compatible |
| with 2.0 and 2.1. This gives us additional freedom to innovate and make the |
| next Eclipse significantly better than it could have been had we tried to maintain |
| compatibility. That said, most of the Eclipse APIs will be the same in 3.0 as |
| in 2.1. We will only break APIs in 3.0 when have a compelling case for doing |
| so. And when we find we need to break APIs, we would do it in a controlled way |
| that minimizes the effort required to port an existing plug-in to the 3.0 APIs. |
| We will provide a comprehensive <i>Eclipse 3.0 Porting Guide</i> that covers |
| all areas of breaking API changes, and describes how to port existing 2.1 plug-ins |
| to 3.0. Up-to-date drafts of the <i>Eclipse 3.0 Porting Guide</i> will be included |
| with milestone builds so that it's possible to climb aboard the 3.0 release |
| wagon at the early stages, or to estimate the amount of effort that will be |
| involved in eventually porting existing plug-ins to 3.0.</p> |
| <p><b>API Contract Compatibility:</b> Eclipse SDK 3.0 will be upwards contract-compatible |
| with Eclipse SDK 2.0 and 2.1 except in those areas noted in the <em>Eclipse |
| 3.0 Porting Guide</em>. This means that programs in full compliance with contracts |
| specified in Eclipse SDK 2.0 or 2.1 APIs will need to be ported to Eclipse SDK |
| 3.0 APIs. (API is construed broadly to include such things as plug-in extension |
| points.) Downward contract compatibility is not supported. There is no guarantee |
| that compliance with Eclipse SDK 3.0 APIs would ensure compliance with Eclipse |
| SDK 2.0 or 2.1 APIs. Refer to <i><a href="http://eclipse.org/eclipse/development/java-api-evolution.html">Evolving |
| Java-based APIs</a></i> for a discussion of the kinds of API changes that maintain |
| contract compatibility. |
| <p><b>Binary (plug-in) Compatibility:</b> Eclipse SDK 3.0 will not be upwards |
| binary-compatible with Eclipse SDK 2.0 and 2.1. Plug-ins built for Eclipse SDK |
| 2.0 or 2.1 will need to be ported and recompiled for Eclipse SDK 3.0. Downward |
| plug-in compatibility is not supported either. Plug-ins for Eclipse SDK 3.0 |
| will not be usable in Eclipse SDK 2.0 or 2.1. Refer to <i><a href="http://eclipse.org/eclipse/development/java-api-evolution.html">Evolving |
| Java-based APIs</a></i> for a discussion of the kinds of API changes that maintain |
| binary compatibility. |
| <p><b>Source Compatibility:</b> Eclipse SDK 3.0 will be upwards source-compatible |
| with Eclipse SDK 2.0 or 2.1 except in the areas noted in the <em>Eclipse 3.0 |
| Porting Guide</em>. This means that source files written to use Eclipse SDK |
| 2.0 or 2.1 APIs might successfully compile and run against Eclipse SDK 3.0 APIs, |
| although this is not guaranteed. Downward source compatibility is not supported. |
| If source files use new Eclipse SDK APIs, they will not be usable with an earlier |
| version of the Eclipse SDK. |
| <p><b>Workspace Compatibility:</b> Eclipse SDK 3.0 will be upwards workspace-compatible |
| with Eclipse SDK 2.0 or 2.1 unless noted. This means that workspaces and projects |
| created with Eclipse SDK 2.0 or 2.1 can be successfully opened by Eclipse SDK |
| 3.0 and upgraded to a 3.0 workspace. This includes both hidden metadata, which |
| is localized to a particular workspace, as well as metadata files found within |
| a workspace project (e.g., the .project file), which may propagate between workspaces |
| via file copying or team repositories. Individual plug-ins developed for Eclipse |
| SDK 3.0 should provide similar upwards compatibility for their hidden and visible |
| workspace metadata created by earlier versions; 3.0 plug-in developers are responsible |
| for ensuring that their plug-ins recognize 3.0, 2.1, and 2.0 metadata and process |
| it appropriately. User interface session state may be discarded when a workspace |
| is upgraded. Downward workspace compatibility is not supported. A workspace |
| created (or opened) by Eclipse SDK 3.0 will be unusable with an earlier version |
| of Eclipse SDK. Visible metadata files created (or overwritten) by Eclipse |
| SDK 3.0 will generally be unusable with earlier versions of Eclipse SDK. |
| <p><b>Non-compliant usage of API's</b>: All non-API methods and classes, and certainly |
| everything in a package with "internal" in its name, are considered |
| implementation details which may vary between operating environment and are |
| subject to change without notice. Client plug-ins that directly depend on anything |
| other than what is specified in the Eclipse SDK API are inherently unsupportable |
| and receive no guarantees about compatibility within a single release much less |
| with an earlier releases. Refer to <i><a href="http://www.eclipse.org/articles/Article-API%20use/eclipse-api-usage-rules.html">How |
| to Use the Eclipse API</a></i> for information about how to write compliant |
| plug-ins. |
| <h2> Eclipse Project Subprojects</h2> |
| |
| The Eclipse Project consists of 3 subprojects. Each subproject is covered in its |
| own section: |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#Platform">Eclipse Platform subproject</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#JDT">Java development tools (JDT) subproject</a></li> |
| <li><a href="#PDE">Plug-in development environment (PDE) subproject</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>For each subproject, the items listed reflect new features of the Eclipse Platform, |
| or areas where existing features will be significantly reworked. Each item indicates |
| the components likely affected by that work item (many items involve coordinated |
| changes to several components). Numbers in parentheses link to bugzilla problem |
| reports for that plan item (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?product=JDT&product=PDE&product=Platform&keywords=plan&target_milestone=3.0&target_milestone=3.0+M1&target_milestone=3.0+M2&target_milestone=3.0+M3&target_milestone=3.0+M4&target_milestone=3.0+M5">query |
| bugzilla for all 3.0 plan items</a>). |
| <h2> <a name="Platform">Eclipse Platform subproject</a></h2> |
| |
| <p>The Eclipse Platform provides the most fundamental building blocks. Plan items |
| reflect new features of the Eclipse Platform, or areas where existing features |
| will be significantly reworked. Many of the changes under consideration for |
| the next release of the Eclipse Platform address three major themes. Since each |
| theme has a number of items, the committed, proposed, and deferred plan items |
| are grouped in sections by theme:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#ThemeUserExperience">User experience theme</a> - Improving Eclipse |
| from the point of view of the end user.</li> |
| <li><a href="#ThemeResponsiveUI">Responsive UI theme</a> - Making it easier |
| to write Eclipse plug-ins that keep the UI responsive.</li> |
| <li><a href="#ThemeRCP">Rich client platform theme</a> - Generalizing Eclipse |
| into a platform for building non-IDE applications.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>In addition, there are important Eclipse Platform improvements that do not |
| naturally fit into any of the above themes.</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#OtherPlatform">Other Eclipse Platform items</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <h3><a name="ThemeUserExperience">Theme: User Experience</a></h3> |
| <p>Improving Eclipse from the point of view of the end user. This includes improving |
| both the "out of the box" experience so that new users are productive |
| faster, and finding better ways to scale up to large numbers of plug-ins without |
| overwhelming the user.</p> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve UI |
| scalability.</b> Despite efforts to ensure UI scalability with a large base |
| of available tools, the Eclipse workbench still intimidates many users with |
| long menus, wide toolbars, and lengthy flat lists of preferences. This problem |
| is acute in large Eclipse-based products. The Platform should provide additional |
| ways for controlling workbench clutter, such as further menu and toolbar customizability, |
| distinguishing between novice and advanced functions, supporting different |
| developer roles, and more specific object contributions for particular file |
| types. [Platform UI, Platform Debug, JDT UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37929">37929</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve initial |
| user experience.</b> Users who are new to an Eclipse-based product can find |
| their first experiences with it overwhelming, even daunting. The initial experience |
| would be improved if a product could preconfigure the workbench to show only |
| the subset of function that a new user really needs; welcome pages could be |
| personalized for particular users roles or levels of experience. [Platform |
| UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37664">37664</a>)</p> |
| |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Aid ongoing |
| learning.</b> Users who work with a complex Eclipse-based product need not |
| be familiar with all of its function in order to be productive. When they |
| do come to use function which they have never used before (or not recently |
| enough to be fresh in memory), it is important that the product be able to |
| quickly train and guide the user in using that new function. The current Eclipse |
| has many elements that aid learning (examples, tips and tricks, F1 help, active |
| help links); the work item is to apply them effectively in the Eclipse UI |
| and recommend how other plug-ins do similarly. [Platform UI, Help] [Theme: |
| User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37666">37666</a>)</p> |
| |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve UI |
| affordances.</b> There are a number of areas of the UI where Eclipse is not |
| providing enough cues to the user (e.g., no cue for available help, no cue |
| for maximize/restore view, no cue for mandatory/optional fields in wizards). |
| Make a systematic pass though the UI to improve its affordances. [Platform |
| UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37667">37667</a>)</p> |
| <p>(2.1 deferred item) <b>Improve file encoding support.</b> Eclipse 2.1 uses |
| a single global file encoding setting for reading and writing files in the |
| workspace. This is problematic; for example, when Java source files in the |
| workspace use OS default file encoding while XML files in the workspace use |
| UTF-8 file encoding. The Platform should support non-uniform file encodings. |
| [Platform Core, Platform UI, Text, Search, Compare, JDT UI, JDT Core] [Theme: |
| User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37933">37933</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Evolve the |
| Eclipse user experience.</b> Eclipse 3.0 should have a new look that makes |
| more effective use of the capabilities of current desktop computers. This |
| includes allowing the user to customize the workbench by creating floating |
| toolbars and views, and supporting tear-off views and dockable toolbars where |
| supported by the underlying window system. [Platform UI, JDT UI, SWT] [Theme: |
| User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37997">37997</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| keyboard bindings. </strong>Several things should be done to improve keyboard |
| bindings. First, custom key bindings currently work only in the main Eclipse |
| window, and not in secondary windows like dialogs, wizards, and floating views |
| (another plan item). For example, custom editor key bindings do not work in |
| a text control in a preference dialog. Eclipse should support custom key bindings |
| in the places where the user reasonably expects. Second, the key customization |
| dialog should be improved. Finally, make a systematic pass through the UI |
| to rationalize the initial set of key bindings. [Platform UI, SWT] [Theme: |
| User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37934">37934</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| editor management.</strong> The current mechanism for switching between editors |
| using tabs does not scale to having many open editors. Eclipse should provide |
| a more scalable and stable, yet efficient, UI for switching between editors. |
| [Platform UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37670">37670</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| text editor interaction. </strong>The text editor should support folding of |
| text regions, which can be leveraged by the Java editor to collapse regions, |
| such as an individual method's body or Javadoc comment, or the import declarations |
| of a compilation unit. The text editor should also support splitting so that |
| the user can simultaneously view and edit discontiguous regions of the same |
| document. [Platform Text, JDT UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37671">37671</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new)<strong> Improve |
| text editor presentation.</strong> The text editor should support an optional |
| marginal change bar that can show how the current document differs from another |
| of its states, such as a local history state or a repository version. Also, |
| text editors should support for emphasizing a text region by changing its |
| background color. [Platform Text, JDT UI] [Theme: User Experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37672">37672</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| text editor typing.</strong> The set of key actions available in the text |
| editor should be enriched with additional common operations like insert line, |
| duplicate line, transpose, and convert to uppercase. The current JDT editor |
| support for templates with variables should be generalized and pushed down |
| so that it is available in all text editors. [Platform Text, JDT UI] [Theme: |
| User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37674">37674</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| global text search/replace.</strong> Global text search should allow regular |
| expressions in search patterns. The replace action should be more visible |
| in the UI, and be easier to use in the case of bulk changes. [Platform Search] |
| [Theme: User Experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37675">37675</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> expanded 2.1 deferred |
| item) <b>Allow editors to open files outside workspace.</b> A common request |
| is to be able to use Eclipse to open a file that is not part of the workspace, |
| or perhaps even one on a remote system. In addition, applications would like |
| to provide file extension associations so that double-clicking on a file in |
| the OS desktop would open the associated Eclipse editor. The operations and |
| capabilities available on these "outside of the workspace" files |
| would need to be defined. [Platform UI] [Themes: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37935">37935</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Display HTML |
| in a widget.</b> In Eclipse 2.0 and 2.1, the only supported option for rendering |
| HTML in the workbench is to use OLE to link to IE. This support is Windows |
| only; there is no such option in other operating environments. Even on Windows, |
| this only works for IE and not other browsers. There are already several Eclipse |
| components that could benefit from HTML display functionality in a widget: |
| welcome pages; update manager update site overview; hovers that show Javadoc. |
| The Platform should provide a portable way to display HTML in a widget and |
| support it in all operating environments. [Platform UI, SWT] [Themes: User |
| experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36952">36952</a>)</p> |
| |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve workspace |
| synchronization with file system.</b> A file resource in the workspace gets |
| out of sync when the underlying file in the file system is created, deleted, |
| or rewritten outside of Eclipse. File resources usually remains out of sync |
| until the user explicitly hits Refresh. The Eclipse Platform should provide |
| ways to keep the in-memory representation in sync with the file system; for |
| example, by hooking OS file system callbacks where available, and by polling |
| for file system changes in a background thread. [Platform Core, Platform UI] |
| [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36962">36962</a>)</p> |
| |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Content-type-based |
| editor lookup.</strong> The choice of editor is currently based on file name |
| patterns. This is not very flexible, and breaks down when fundamentally different |
| types of content are found in files with undistinguished file names or internal |
| formats. For example, many different models with specialized editors get stored |
| in XML format files named *.xml. Eclipse should support a notion of content |
| type for files and resources, and use these to drive decisions like which |
| editor to use. This feature would also be used by team providers when doing |
| comparisons based on file type. The several existing file-type registries |
| in Eclipse should be consolidated. [Platform Core, Platform UI] [Theme: User |
| experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37668">37668</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| support for opening workspaces.</strong> Many users use multiple workspaces |
| as a way to keep their different projects or work items separate. Currently, |
| this requires launching Eclipse multiple times with different command line |
| arguments, which is not particularly convenient for users. Moreover, when |
| the command line argument is not specified, the workspace location defaults |
| to a directory inside where the code for Eclipse is installed. Eclipse should |
| improve how workspaces get opened, use a user-specific default workspace location |
| more suitable for shared multi-user Eclipse installs, and facilitate switching |
| between workspaces. [Platform Core, Platform UI] [Themes: User experience] |
| (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37681">37681</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Provide a |
| general purpose navigator.</b> The Eclipse Navigator view presents a |
| view of resources in the workspace. The Eclipse Platform should provide a |
| more flexible, general purpose, extensible navigator infrastructure that would |
| make it possible to show other objects as well (like an the extended physical |
| view provided by Windows Explorer). [Platform UI, JDT UI] [Theme: User experience] |
| (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36961">36961</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <p>These items are next in line for this release. As committers complete their |
| assigned tasks, or additional help becomes available, some of these items may |
| be committed for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(2.1 deferred item) <b>Add cheat sheets </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36946">36946</a>)<br> |
| (2.1 deferred item) <b>Add table of contents support to wizards </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36947">36947</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> expanded 2.1 PDE deferred |
| item) <b>Add project templates </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36960">36960</a>) |
| <br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Allow automation |
| of common tasks</b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37936">37936</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Support workspace |
| checkpoint and rollback </b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36958">36958</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Allow |
| dynamic help content </strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37676">37676</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Display |
| HTML help infopops </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37677">37677</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Add capabilities |
| </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36959">36959</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Simplify update |
| manager UI </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37678">37678</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| local history </strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37679">37679</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Add Eclipse |
| automation </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37680">37680</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h3><a name="ThemeResponsiveUI">Theme: Responsive UI</a></h3> |
| <p>Making it easier to write Eclipse plug-ins that keep the UI responsive. Areas |
| for improvement run the gamut from the UI becoming sluggish (or temporarily |
| freezing) when blocking operations are done in the UI thread, to long-running |
| operations like builds and searches which could be performed in the background |
| while the user continues to work.</p> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Responsive UI theme)</h4> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Support concurrent |
| activities.</b> In Eclipse 2.0 and 2.1, certain operations like builds and |
| searches always run synchronously and block the user at the UI from doing |
| work until the build has completed. The Eclipse Platform should support operations |
| running asynchronously in the background, so that the user is not forced to |
| be entirely idle while long-running operations are in progress. This will |
| likely require an improved concurrency architecture with more explicit rules. |
| [Platform UI, Platform Core, Platform Text, JDT Core, JDT UI, PDE] [Theme: |
| Responsive UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36957">36957</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Establish |
| UI responsiveness targets.</strong> Eclipse should establish quantitative |
| responsiveness targets for key user actions, such as opening an editor, popping |
| up a view context menu, switching perspectives, etc. These guidelines should |
| be supported by automated benchmarks that allow the responsiveness of the |
| Eclipse UI to be measured and tracked. [Platform, JDT, PDE] [Theme: Responsive |
| UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37682">37682</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Responsive UI theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Address |
| platform-specific UI performance problems.</strong> There is a noticable UI |
| performance and responsiveness difference between Eclipse running on Windows |
| and Eclipse running on Linux GTK, Linux Motif, or QNX Photon, all on the same |
| hardware, with Windows clearly outperforming the others. Improvements made |
| to SWT alone have not reduced this "performance gap" enough. In |
| order to improve Eclipse performance in the other operating environments, |
| we need to make a concerted effort to determine the root causes (suspects |
| include low-level thread scheduling and synchronization), and then take steps |
| to address them. [SWT, Platform UI] [Theme: Responsive UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37683">37683</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Responsive UI theme)</h4> |
| <p>These items are next in line for this release. As committers complete their |
| assigned tasks, or additional help becomes available, some of these items may |
| be committed for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve update |
| manager search</b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37684">37684</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| scalability for large help books </strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37685">37685</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h3><a name="ThemeRCP">Theme: Rich client platform</a></h3> |
| <p>Eclipse was designed as a universal tool integration platform. However, many |
| facets and components of Eclipse are not particularly specific to IDEs and make |
| equal sense in non-IDE applications (e.g., window-based GUI, plug-ins, help |
| system, update manager). Certain changes, like factoring out IDE-specific facilities, |
| would allow the Eclipse Platform to be generalized into a rich client platform |
| for building non-IDE applications.</p> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Rich Client Platform theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b></b> <b>Enable |
| Eclipse to be used as a rich client platform.</b> Eclipse was designed as |
| a universal tool integration platform. However, many facets and components |
| of Eclipse are not particularly specific to IDEs and would make equal sense |
| in non-IDE applications (e.g., window-based GUI, plug-ins, help system, |
| update manager). The Eclipse Platform should factor out and segregate IDE-specific |
| facilities (e.g., everything having to do with workspace resources) so that |
| a subset of it can be used as a rich client platform for building applications. |
| [Platform Core, Platform UI, Platform Update] [Theme: Rich client platform] |
| (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36967">36967</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Provide user |
| settings.</b> It should be possible to store user settings (preferences, compiler |
| settings, repositories lists, etc.) that are not specific to a workspace separate |
| from the workspace, so that they can be used in other workspaces or by other |
| users. [Platform Core] [Themes: Rich client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36965">36965</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Remove |
| configuration state from workspace metadata area.</strong> Feature and plug-in |
| configuration state is currently stored in the metadata subdirectory of each |
| workspace. This has the drawback that product configuration actions done in |
| one workspace do not carry over to other workspaces. Configuration state should |
| be moved out of the workspace into the install directory (single-user installs) |
| or to a dedicated read-write product configuration area (shared multi-user |
| installs). This would mean that configuration states would be in a known location |
| for external tools to find. Different workspaces might still have different |
| configurations, which could be achieved by referencing a named configuration |
| state stored centrally. [Platform Update] [Theme: Rich client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37686">37686</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Rich Client Platform theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| adding and removing plug-ins dynamically.</strong> Installation and configuration |
| of features and plug-ins currently only happens during Eclipse Platform startup. |
| The plug-in registry should be made dynamic so that features and plug-ins |
| can be added or removed without necessarily having to restart Eclipse. This |
| will also entail adding mechanisms for handling the arrival and departure |
| of extensions and extension points. Additional mechanisms such as services |
| will be added to support the dynamic programming model. Alternative runtimes |
| (e.g., OSGi) which offer explicit support for dynamic components will also |
| be investigated and used as appropriate. Plug-in developers will likely require |
| additional support from PDE in writing and debugging well-behaved dynamic |
| plug-ins. [Platform Core, PDE] [Theme: Rich client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37687">37687</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Allow |
| plug-in deactivation.</strong> In order to scale to a large number of plug-ins, |
| Eclipse does not activate a plug-in until its code is actually needed. However, |
| once activated a plug-in remains active for the remainder of the session. |
| Unfortunately, this means that an active plug-in will occupy memory space |
| for its code and objects even if it is only used occasionally. Many users |
| have sessions lasting days or weeks, and this bloat taxes processor memory |
| and JVM performance. The analogy is a long play where the actors enter the |
| stage on cue, but cannot leave it until the play is over. The Eclipse Platform |
| should support plug-ins that can be safely deactivated when the user needs |
| to recover valuable memory space. Another alternative is to provide a way |
| to quietly shutdown and restart the Platform. [Platform Core, Platform UI] |
| [Theme: Rich client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36956">36956</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Add a |
| security model.</strong> Security needs are pervasive. The Eclipse Platform |
| should provide the basic framework for a security mechanism that can be used |
| by all plug-ins, including a simple credentials store and user authentication. |
| Additionally, key parts of the Platform itself should be secured, such as |
| the ability to install plug-ins, which might need to be restricted in certain |
| products or for certain users. [Platform Core, Platform Update] [Theme: Rich |
| client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37692">37692</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| product branding.</strong> Eclipse-based products need the ability to adopt |
| a product-specific look and/or apply corporate branding. Eclipse should provide |
| mechanisms to allow such customization. This must be done in such a way that |
| plug-ins can be developed independent of any particular look, and can be shared |
| across products with different looks. [Platform UI, SWT] [Theme: Rich client |
| platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37693">37693</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, Rich Client Platform theme)</h4> |
| <p>These items are next in line for this release. As committers complete their |
| assigned tasks, or additional help becomes available, some of these items may |
| be committed for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Provide update |
| manager operations API </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37688">37688</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Allow uninstalling |
| features </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37689">37689</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h3><a name="OtherPlatform">Other Eclipse Platform Items</a></h3> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| SWT accessibility support.</strong> In Eclipse 2.1, SWT controls tap in to |
| the MSAA 1.3 accessibility support, allowing accessible UIs to be built with |
| SWT on Windows. SWT accessibility support should be extended to GTK operating |
| environments, and updated on Windows for MSAA 2.0. [SWT] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37694">37694</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve |
| action contributions.</b> The current action contribution story is diverse |
| and complex, and the interactions between key bindings and retargetable |
| actions, unclear. Eclipse should unify the action contribution support, |
| provide simplified support for key bindings, and clarify the interactions |
| between key bindings and retargetable actions. Eclipse should also support |
| new types of actions contributions, such as combo boxes in toolbars, and |
| enable additional UI customization. [Platform UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36968">36968</a>)</p> |
| <p>(2.1 deferred item) <b>Improve SWT support for right-to-left languages.</b> Allow |
| the appropriate widget orientation for right-to-left languages. [SWT] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36951">36951</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| UI guidelines.</strong> The current Eclipse UI guidelines are somewhat dated |
| and do not cover as much as they need to. Eclipse should provide comprehensive |
| UI guidelines so that plug-in developers can create plug-ins with UIs that |
| fit well into the overall Eclipse workbench (a subset of these guidelines |
| would likely apply to general applications built with Eclipse). [Platform |
| UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37695">37695</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Remove |
| dependency on Xerces.</strong> The Xerces plug-in currently provides XML support |
| for the Eclipse platform. XML support is now incorporated into J2SE 1.4, and |
| the presence of the Xerces plug-in can create conflicts. Eclipse Platform |
| should consistently use the built-in XML support that ships with JDK 1.4, |
| or possibly an alternative XML parser such as <a href="http://www.xmlpull.org/">XMLPull</a> |
| which has a much smaller footprint. [Platform Core] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37696">37696</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| Ant.</strong> Eclipse should allow the option of running Ant in a separately-specified |
| JVM. The Ant editor should support refactoring inside Ant scripts. [Ant Core, |
| Ant UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37697">37697</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Provide improved |
| table and table tree widgets. </b> Eclipse customers are finding that the |
| existing table and table tree custom SWT widgets lacks required functionality, |
| exhibit undesirable layout and resizing behavior, and are generally ill-suited |
| for presenting large data models. Their largely unsuccessful attempts to define |
| their own custom table tree widget have shown it to be a very challenging |
| task requiring expert-level knowledge of SWT. SWT should provide improved |
| table and table tree widgets. [SWT, Platform UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37998">37998</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| feature model and build support.</strong> The current nested feature structure |
| is static and unconditional. This makes nested features hard for developers |
| to manage (version brittleness, platform-specific feature ids) and greatly |
| increases the download size of service releases. We should allow all included |
| features and a feature's required plug-ins to be conditionalized, and improve |
| PDE to build nested features and fill in constituent version numbers at build |
| time. [Platform Core, Platform Update, PDE] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37713">37713</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| team control over resource operations.</strong> Eclipse currently provides |
| limited hooks (edit/save, move/delete) so that team providers can control |
| or influence operations on resources in the workspace. However, there are |
| some aspects and operations over which team providers have little or no influence, |
| such as resource creation and copying. Eclipse should offer team providers |
| better control over resource operations. [Platform Core, Platform Team] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37722">37722</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| logical resources.</strong> The Eclipse Platform supports a strong physical |
| view of projects, files, and folders in the workspace. However, there are |
| many situations where a physical view is not the most salient or useful for |
| many purposes. In some cases, multiple distinct objects happen to be stored |
| in a single file, like an archive. Conversely, in other cases, something that |
| is logically a single object is stored across multiple files. This discrepancy |
| between logical and physical creates problems for common operations such as |
| searching, comparing, and versioning, which need to work in the physical realm. |
| Eclipse should support some way of mapping between a logical view and the |
| physical organization of files on disk. [Platform Core, Platform UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37723">37723</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Provide |
| Swing interoperability.</strong> Eclipse plug-in developers often have existing |
| Swing-based UIs that they would like to integrate with Eclipse. Eclipse should |
| provide a wrapper that allows Swing widgets to be embedded within a SWT UI. |
| [SWT] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37724">37724</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Port |
| SWT to 64-bit operating environments. </strong>SWT currently only runs on |
| 32-bit operating environments. SWT should be ported to run on current 64-bit |
| operating environments. [SWT] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37721">37721</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <p>These items are next in line for this release. As committers complete their |
| assigned tasks, or additional help becomes available, some of these items may |
| be committed for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| HTML help pages in archives </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37698">37698</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve structure |
| of existing documentation </b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36964">36964</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve update |
| manager downloading </b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37699">37699</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Provide one-click |
| update for Eclipse builds </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37701">37701</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve organizational |
| control over product updates </b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37702">37702</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Provide |
| working sets for help infocenter </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37703">37703</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| GUI test tools </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37704">37704</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| team API </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37705">37705</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| native skinning in SWT </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37706">37706</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Make SWT |
| work in a browser</strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37707">37707</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Complete |
| Mac OS X port </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37708">37708</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| OpenGL </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37709">37709</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Support |
| MDI </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37710">37710</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| message bundles </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37712">37712</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Allow |
| infocenter to run on existing app server </strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37714">37714</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| plug-in registry </strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37715">37715</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Provide |
| common command infrastructure </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37716">37716</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Provide |
| better examples and snippets </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37717">37717</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong> Improve |
| support for multi-page editors </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37718">37718</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Unify |
| editors and views </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37719">37719</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Rejected Items (Eclipse Platform subproject)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| |
| |
| <p>(End of items for Eclipse Platform subproject.) |
| <h2> <a name="JDT">Java development tools (JDT) subproject</a></h2> |
| |
| <p><a href="http://www.eclipse.org/jdt/index.html"> Java development tools</a> |
| (JDT) implements a Java IDE based on the Eclipse Platform. The following work |
| items reflect new features of JDT, or areas where existing features will be |
| significantly reworked. The kinds of changes under consideration for the next |
| release of JDT address two general themes. The committed, proposed, and deferred |
| plan items are grouped in sections by theme:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#ThemeJavaFamily">Extended Java family theme</a> - Generalizing |
| JDT to handle more than just Java source files.</li> |
| <li><a href="#ThemeJDTUserExperience">User experience theme</a> - Improving |
| JDT from the point of view of the end user writing Java code.</li> |
| </ul> |
| <p>In addition, there are important Eclipse Platform improvements that do not |
| naturally fit into either of the above themes.</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li><a href="#OtherJDT">Other JDT items</a></li> |
| </ul> |
| <h3><a name="ThemeJavaFamily">Theme: Extended Java Family</a></h3> |
| <p>Generalize JDT to handle more members of the Java family than just Java source |
| files. This includes widening to handle Java-like languages (such as JSP and |
| SQLj), and embracing non-Java files containing references to Java language elements |
| (such as plug-in manifest files and J2EE deployment descriptors).</p> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, Extended Java Family theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve support |
| for Java-like source files.</b> JSP and SQLj are two instances of languages |
| that use Java syntax. Eclipse should provide better support for Java-like |
| source files. For instance, it should be possible to index these files so |
| that Java search can find the Java declarations and references within; it |
| should be possible to use Java code assist on the Java passages; refactoring |
| should be able to take these files into account; the debugger should be able |
| to step through the Java passages (<a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=045" target="_blank">JSR-045</a>); |
| error highlighting should be supported across sections; etc. [JDT Core, JDT |
| UI, JDT Debug] [Theme: Extended Java family] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36939">36939</a>)</p> |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Support Java |
| references outside Java code.</b> References to Java elements in particular |
| classes can show up in specific kinds of non-Java source files, such as plug-in |
| manifest files (plugin.xml), extension point schema files, and Java launch |
| configurations in the workspace. These references should also participate |
| in Java operations like search, move, rename, and other refactoring operations. |
| JDT will surface APIs that enable other plug-ins to contribute to and participate |
| in these operations. [JDT Core, JDT UI, JDT Debug, PDE] [Theme: Extended Java |
| family] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37937">37937</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, Extended Java Family theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, Extended Java Family theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h3><a name="ThemeJDTUserExperience">Theme: User Experience</a></h3> |
| <p>Improve JDT from the point of view of the end user reading, writing, and navigating |
| in Java code.</p> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Present logical |
| view of Java objects in debugger.</b> The current debugger always presents |
| the internal structure of Java objects. For instances of standard data structures |
| like java.util.HashMap, the Java debugger should be able to present a higher |
| level logical view of the object (i.e., to show it as a table of key-to-value |
| mappings). [JDT Debug] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36942">36942</a>)</p> |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Improve refactoring.</b> |
| JDT should add new refactorings, such as add parameter, convert constructor |
| to factory method, and extract superclass. JDT should also allow other plug-ins |
| to contribute specialized refactoring operations, and provide refactoring |
| APIs and infrastructure to make it possible for them to do so. [JDT Core, |
| JDT UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36943">36943</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| code formatter.</strong> JDT should provide a new code formatter implementation |
| that is more flexible and supports many more styles. [JDT Core] [Theme: User |
| experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37657">37657</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| editor code navigation.</strong> The Java editor should allow the user to |
| navigate in the type hierarchy from a selected element. For instance, the |
| editor should show override indicators (currently shown only in the outliner |
| view), and allow direct navigation to the declaration of the overridden method. |
| The editor should also provide more information about the currently selected |
| element such as all referenced types, call sites, overriders, implementers, |
| declaration. [JDT UI] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37658">37658</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, User Experience theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h3><a name="OtherJDT">Other JDT Items</a></h3> |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| shared working copies.</strong> There is mechanism that allows working copies |
| of source files to be analyzed in the context of the rest of the Java model. |
| Currently, shared working copies are hard to manage. Eclipse should simplify |
| the management of working copies so that they can be used more transparently. |
| [JDT Core] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37659">37659</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| |
| <blockquote> |
| <p> (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Add early |
| support for J2SE 1.5 features.</b> The next feature release of J2SE is version |
| 1.5 ("Tiger"), targeted to ship in the first half of 2004. While |
| the contents of this release are still under discussion (<a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=176" target="_blank">JSR-176</a>), |
| this release is expected to contain extensions to the Java language, including |
| generic types (<a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=014" target="_blank">JSR-014</a>), |
| enumerations, autoboxing, enhanced for loops, static imports (all <a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=201" target="_blank">JSR-201</a>), |
| metadata facility (<a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=175">JSR-175</a>), |
| and compiler APIs (<a href="http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=199" target="_blank">JSR-199</a>). |
| Supporting these new language and compiler features will require major changes |
| to the Eclipse Java compiler, JDT Core APIs, and JDT UI, and may suggest new |
| Java 1.5-specific refactorings. Although Eclipse 3.0 might ship before J2SE |
| 1.5 does, Eclipse should contain early support for J2SE 1.5 features wherever |
| possible [JDT Core, JDT UI, JDT Debug] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36938">36938</a>)</p> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Harmonize |
| Java source manipulation.</b> The Java model is currently implemented in terms |
| of JDOM, an early precursor of the AST facility added in 2.0. JDT will move |
| to an AST-based implementation of the Java model, and deprecate JDOM. [JDT |
| Core] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36941">36941</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse JDT subproject, no theme)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Rejected Items (Eclipse JDT subproject)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| |
| |
| <p>(End of items for Eclipse JDT subproject.) |
| |
| |
| |
| <h2> <a name="PDE">Plug-in development environment (PDE) subproject</a></h2> |
| |
| The <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/pde/index.html"> plug-in development environment</a> |
| (PDE) consists of tools for developing plug-ins for the Eclipse Platform. |
| |
| The following work items reflect new features of PDE, or areas where existing |
| |
| features will be significantly reworked. |
| <h4>Committed Items (Eclipse PDE subproject)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Proposed Items (Eclipse PDE subproject)</h4> |
| <p>The following work items are being actively investigated, but we are not yet |
| able to promise any solution for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Add JUnit |
| support for testing plug-ins.</strong> PDE should include JUnit-based support |
| for testing plug-ins (an early version of this support is found in the optional |
| <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/%7Echeckout%7E/jdt-ui-home/plugins/org.eclipse.jdt.junit/index.html">org.eclipse.pde.junit</a> |
| plug-in). (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37663">37663</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Deferred Items (Eclipse PDE subproject)</h4> |
| <p>These items are next in line for this release. As committers complete their |
| assigned tasks, or additional help becomes available, some of these items may |
| be committed for this release:</p> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p>(<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Help developers |
| tune plug-in performance </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36944">36944</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <b>Support context-sensitive |
| help for plug-ins </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36945">36945</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| PDE model implementation </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37660">37660</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| PDE editors </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37661">37661</a>)<br> |
| (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> new) <strong>Improve |
| plug-in debugging </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37662">37662</a>)</p> |
| </blockquote> |
| <h4>Rejected Items (Eclipse PDE subproject)</h4> |
| <blockquote> |
| <p><i>None at this time.</i></p> |
| </blockquote> |
| |
| <p>(End of items for Eclipse PDE subproject.) |
| </body> |
| |
| </html> |
| |