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<h1>Eclipse Project<br>
DRAFT 3.0 Plan</h1>
<p>Last revised Monday, October 27, 2003 (<img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12">
marks interesting changes since the <a href="eclipse_project_plan_3_0_20030918.html">previous
draft of September 18, 2003</a>)<br>
<br>
<i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 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 &quot;3.0&quot;?</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.&nbsp;
<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
&quot;R3_0&quot; 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 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) - stable build reflecting
progress</li>
<li>Friday November 21, 2003 - Milestone 5 (3.0 M5) - <img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12">
initial API freeze for breaking changes - stable build reflecting progress</li>
<li><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> Friday December 19,
2003 - Milestone 6 (3.0 M6) - API freeze for breaking changes - stable build
with focus on reducing the bug backlog and fixing memory leaks</li>
<li><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> Friday February 13,
2004 - Milestone 7 (3.0 M7) - stable build reflecting progress</li>
<li><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> Friday March 26,
2004 - Milestone 8 (3.0 M8) - stable build reflecting progress</li>
<li><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> Friday May 7, 2004 -
Milestone 9 (3.0 M9) - stable build - feature complete - development freeze
- lock down and testing begins</li>
</ul>
<p><img border="0" src="new.gif" width="12" height="12"> The 3.0 release is
targeted for June 2004. 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 &quot;pure&quot; Java™ code and has no direct
dependence on the underlying operating system. The chief dependence is therefore
on the Java 2 Platform itself. 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>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 bgcolor="#CCCCCC">
<th colspan="4">
<div align="center">
<b><font size="+1">Eclipse Reference Platforms</font></b>
</div>
</th>
</tr>
<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 1.4.2 for Microsoft Windows</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Microsoft Windows XP</td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>Win32</td>
<td>
<p>IBM 32-bit SDK for Windows, Java 2 Technology Edition, Version 1.4.1</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>RedHat Linux 9 Professional</td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>GTK</td>
<td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2 for Linux x86</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>RedHat Linux 9 Professional</td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>GTK</td>
<td>IBM 32-bit SDK for Linux on Intel architecture, Java 2 Technology
Edition, Version 1.4.1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SuSE Linux 8.2</td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>GTK</td>
<td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2 for Linux x86</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>SuSE Linux 8.2</td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>GTK</td>
<td>IBM 32-bit SDK for Linux on Intel architecture, Java 2 Technology
Edition, Version 1.4.1</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Sun Solaris 8</td>
<td>SPARC</td>
<td>Motif</td>
<td>Sun Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, 1.4.2 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 1.4.1.03
for hp9000 PA-RISC</span></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>IBM AIX 5.1</td>
<td>PowerPC</td>
<td>Motif</td>
<td>
<p>IBM 32-bit SDK for AIX, Java 2 Technology Edition, Version 1.4.1</p>
</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 TBD]</i></td>
<td>Intel x86</td>
<td>Photon</td>
<td>IBM J9 VM for QNX <i>[version TBD]</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>Eclipse 3.0 will be compatible with Eclipse 2.0 and 2.1 to the greatest
extent possible.</p>
<h3>Compatibility of Release 3.0 with 2.0 and 2.1</h3>
<p>Eclipse 3.0 will be compatible with Eclipse 2.0 and 2.1 to the greatest
extent possible. The nature and scope of some of the key plan items are such
that the only feasible solutions would break compatibility. Since breaking
changes are a disruption to the Eclipse community, they cannot be taken lightly.
We (the Eclipse PMC) will have an open discussion with the community before
approving a proposed breaking change for inclusion in 3.0. In other regards,
Eclipse 3.0 will be compatible with 2.0 and 2.1. We also aim to minimize the
effort required to port an existing plug-in to the 3.0 APIs. We will provide a
comprehensive <em>Eclipse 3.0 Porting Guide</em> 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 <em>Eclipse 3.0 Porting Guide</em> 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>. Programs that use affected APIs and
extension points will need to be ported to Eclipse SDK 3.0 APIs. 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>
<p><b>Binary (plug-in) Compatibility:</b> Eclipse SDK 3.0 will be upwards
binary-compatible with Eclipse SDK 2.0 and 2.1 except in those areas noted in
the <em>Eclipse 3.0 Porting Guide</em>. Plug-ins that use affected APIs and
extension points will need to be ported and recompiled for Eclipse SDK 3.0.
Downward plug-in compatibility is not supported. 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 a
product based on Eclipse 3.0 will be unusable with a product based an earlier
version of Eclipse. Visible metadata files created (or overwritten) by Eclipse
3.0 will generally be unusable with earlier versions of Eclipse.
<p><b>Non-compliant usage of API's</b>: All non-API methods and classes, and
certainly everything in a package with &quot;internal&quot; 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&amp;product=PDE&amp;product=Platform&amp;keywords=plan&amp;target_milestone=3.0&amp;target_milestone=3.0+M1&amp;target_milestone=3.0+M2&amp;target_milestone=3.0+M3&amp;target_milestone=3.0+M4&amp;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 &quot;out of the box&quot; 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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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>
<p><strong>Allow dynamic help content.</strong> Existing help content consists
entirely of static HTML pages. Additional flexibility would be provided by
allowing help content to include JSPs, possibly with access to the user's
Eclipse environment. [Platform Help] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37676">37676</a>)</p>
<p><b>Simplify update manager UI.</b> User feedback indicates that the update
manager UI is too powerful and occasionally confusing to users. It should be
simplified in order to provide a clear path for the common tasks, embrace
progressively disclosure, separate update search from platform configuration
tasks, and make more economical use of screen real estate for properties.
[Platform Update] [Theme: User experience] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37678">37678</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><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 &quot;outside of the workspace&quot; 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><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><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><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><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><b>Provide a general purpose navigator.</b> The Eclipse Navigator&nbsp;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><b>Add cheat sheets </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36946">36946</a>)<br>
<b>Add table of contents support to wizards </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36947">36947</a>)<br>
<b>Add project templates </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36960">36960</a>)<br>
<b>Allow automation of common tasks</b> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37936">37936</a>)<br>
<b>Support workspace checkpoint and rollback </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36958">36958</a>)<br>
<strong>Display HTML help infopops </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37677">37677</a>)<br>
<b>Add capabilities </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36959">36959</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve local history </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37679">37679</a>)<br>
<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><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><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>
<p><b>Improve update manager search.</b> Update manager searches for new and
updated features are done in the Eclipse client. These searches, which can be
time- consuming, are done only on request, and the user cannot do anything in
Eclipse until the search has completed. There are several ways update manager
searches could be improved: provide update search APIs; allow searches to run
asynchronously in the background; allow background searches to be scheduled
periodically, or on startup; allow searches to be done on the server, thereby
enabling sites to provide custom search implementations. [Platform Update]
[Theme: Responsive UI] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37684">37684</a>)</p>
<p><strong>Improve scalability for large help books.</strong> Improve
scalability for large help books. Although the help system does deal well with
large collections of topics distributed across many books, browser performance
degrades severely when a large number of topics (2000+) are concentrated in a
single book. This performance problem needs to be addressed, possibly by
lazily loading navigation information. [Platform Help] [Theme: Responsive UI]
(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37685">37685</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><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 &quot;performance
gap&quot; 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>
<blockquote>
<p><i>None at this time.</i></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><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><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><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>
<p><b>Provide update manager operations API.</b> Most of the logic currently
in the update manager UI should be pushed into a new operations layer. This
operations layer would be to Update Core what JFace is to SWT. The APIs would
enable update tasks to run headless, and would enable updates to be scripted.
[Platform Update] [Theme: Rich client platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37688">37688</a>)</p>
<p><b>Allow uninstalling features.</b> The update manager can disable features
and plug- ins, but this is done without deleting their files. The update
manager should keep track of the features and plug-ins that it installs, and
fully support uninstalling them. [Platform Update] [Theme: Rich client
platform] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37689">37689</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><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><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><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><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>
<blockquote>
<p><i>None at this time.</i></p>
</blockquote>
<h3><a name="OtherPlatform">Other Eclipse Platform Items</a></h3>
<h4>Committed Items (Eclipse Platform subproject, no theme)</h4>
<blockquote>
<p><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><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><b>Improve SWT support for right-to-left languages.</b>&nbsp;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><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><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><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>
<p><b>Support HTML help pages in archives.</b> A JAR or zip file is a
convenient way to keep the large number of HTML files of a Javadoc web
together. The Eclipse help system should also plug-ins to contribute (and
refer to) HTML pages located in archives. [Platform Help] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37698">37698</a>)</p>
<p><b>Improve organizational control over product updates.</b> In
organizations where there are many users and installs of the same Eclipse
product, the local administrator should have ways of managing how the product
installs gets updated. For example, the local administrator should be able to
proxy a remote update site and serve up supported updates hosted locally
within the organization, thereby conserving bandwidth, minimizing download
failures, and keeping things inside the organization's firewall. [Platform
Update] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37702">37702</a>)</p>
<p><b>Provide working sets for help infocenter.</b> Persistent help working
sets were added in Eclipse 2.1. This support is not available is infocenters,
where the user must still rely on searches (which are not persisted).
Persistent working set support should be added to infocenters as well.
[Platform Help] (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37703">37703</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><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><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><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><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><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><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>
<b>Improve structure of existing documentation </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36964">36964</a>)<br>
<b>Improve update manager downloading </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37699">37699</a>)<br>
<b>Provide one-click update for Eclipse builds </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37701">37701</a>)<br>
<strong>Support GUI test tools </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37704">37704</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve team API </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37705">37705</a>)<br>
<strong>Support native skinning in SWT </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37706">37706</a>)<br>
<strong>Make SWT work in a browser</strong> (<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37707">37707</a>)<br>
<strong>Complete Mac OS X port </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37708">37708</a>)<br>
<strong>Support OpenGL </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37709">37709</a>)<br>
<strong>Support MDI </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37710">37710</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve message bundles </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37712">37712</a>)<br>
<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>
<strong>Improve plug-in registry </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37715">37715</a>)<br>
<strong>Provide common command infrastructure </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37716">37716</a>)<br>
<strong>Provide better examples and snippets </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37717">37717</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve support for multi-page editors </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37718">37718</a>)<br>
<strong>Unify editors and views </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37719">37719</a>)
</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><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><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><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><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><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><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><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><b>Add early support for J2SE 1.5 features.</b> The next feature release of
J2SE is version 1.5 (&quot;Tiger&quot;), 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><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&nbsp;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><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/~checkout~/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>Proposed Items (Eclipse PDE subproject)</h4>
<blockquote>
<p><i>None at this time.</i></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><b>Help developers tune plug-in performance </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36944">36944</a>)<br>
<b>Support context-sensitive help for plug-ins </b>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36945">36945</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve PDE model implementation </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37660">37660</a>)<br>
<strong>Improve PDE editors </strong>(<a href="http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=37661">37661</a>)<br>
<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.)
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