mylyn.context.mft/proposal.html - www.eclipse.org/proposals - Git at Google

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 <title>Model Focusing Tools</title>
 </head>

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 <body>
 <p>The Model Focusing Tools project is a proposed open source project under the <a
 	href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project_summary.php?projectid=mylyn.context">Mylyn Context Project</a>.</p>

 <!--
 	The communication channel must be specified. Typically, this is the
 	"Proposals" forum. In general, you don't need to change this.
  -->
 <p>This proposal is in the Project Proposal Phase (as defined in the
 Eclipse Development Process) and is written to declare its intent and
 scope. We solicit additional participation and input from the Eclipse
 community. Please send all feedback to the
 <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/eclipse.proposals">Eclipse Proposals</a>
 Forum.</p>

 <h2>Background</h2>

 <p>
 The Eclipse Mylyn and Modeling projects are two of the most innovative
 and widely used projects within Eclipse. They both have strong
 communities and high-quality toolsets. Modeling provides high-level,
 concept-centeric tools for representing and working with complex
 information, and Mylyn provides user-focused, task-centric tools for
 organizing and contextualizing complex information. The aim of this
 project is to bridge the two technologies, creating a unique toolset
 for concept and task-focused interaction with complex information. The
 project brings the productivity, integration and traceability
 benefits of Mylyn to Eclipse Modeling.
 </p>

 <p>
 The tools provided by the project also address one of the most
 significant challenges to the adoption of Model-Driven Software
 Development (MDSD). Models are often represented in diagram
 form. Diagrams are much better at depicting complex relationships
 between entities than are traditional text-based approaches. But they
 have significant disadvantages as well. First, because visual models
 capture relationships between entities so well, those relationships
 tend to be deeply intertwined, making it difficult to pick out
 immediately relevant nodes and relationships from the surrounding
 clutter. Second, despite conventional wisdom, diagrams tend to be
 information sparse. It can take far more screen real-estate to display
 the same information as in text. Ideally, diagrams could self-adapt to
 depict just the interesting things, making the best use of available
 space. In the initial implementation we mainly tackle the first part
 of this challenge. Diagram elements that are not relevant to the task
 are hidden and then revealed progressively as the user draws closer to
 them in information space.
 </p>

 <h2>Scope</h2>

 <p>
 The scope of this project is to bring Mylyn's task-focused interface
 to modeling tools:
 </p>

 <ul>
 <li>Diagram editors, such as for Ecore and UML models</li>
 <li>Model Navigators</li>
 <li>Model Outlines</li>
 <li>EMF generated editors</li>
 <li>Other modeling views</li>
 </ul>

 <p>
 The scope expands to other modeling technologies as well, which could include:
 </p>

 <ul>
 <li>Graphiti based editors and views supporting non-EMF based tools</li>
 <li>Forms-based editors using EEF</li>
 <li>Textual models using XText</li>
 </ul>

 <p>It is out of scope to provide integration of modeling
 technologies for other Mylyn projects.</p>

 <!--
 <h2>Description</h2>
 -->

 <!--
 <h2>Why Eclipse?</h2>
 -->
 <!--
 	Answer these two questions:	What value does this project bring to the Eclipse
 	community? What value do you expect to obtain from hosting your project at Eclipse?

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 	of hosting at Eclipse Labs?
  -->

 <h2>Initial Contribution</h2>

 <p>
 The initial contribution work was developed by <a href="http://tasktop.com" class="external text" title="http://tasktop.com" rel="nofollow">Tasktop Technologies</a> and sponsored by <a href="http://www.ericsson.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.ericsson.com/" rel="nofollow">Ericsson</a> in the context of the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingPlatform" class="external text" title="http://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingPlatform" rel="nofollow">Modeling Platform Industrial Working Group</a> It is publicly available under the EPL v1.0 and pending contribution is hosted at <a href="https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling" class="external free" title="https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling</a>.
 </p>

 <h3>Components</h3>

 <p>
 The initial contribution is a full-featured Mylyn bridge for EMF. It
 provides a focused mode for diagrams that shows only the elements
 related to the task-at-hand, dramatically reducing information
 overload for engineers working on large models.  In addition, the
 task-focused interface extensions provide Mylyn's one-click
 multitasking facilities for working with models, ensuring that
 developers can instantly recover from interruptions, and share
 model-specific expertise, when working with models in addition to what
 Mylyn already provides for engineers working with source code
 (see <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#User_Guide"
 class="external text"
 title="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#User_Guide"
 rel="nofollow">for details</a>). Currently supported modeling tools
 include:
 </p>

 <ol>
 <li>Ecore Models within the Ecore Tools diagram editor and project
 explorer extensions.</li>
 <li>UML Class models using the Papyrus modeling tools.</li>
 </ol>

 <p>
 The contribution also provides support at the API level allowing
 integrators to implement their own Mylyn support for existing Ecore
 models and GMF editors
 (see <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#Integrating_Mylyn_for_Modeling_with_custom_GMF_editors">for details</a>). Current service provider interfaces
 are extensible for:
 </p>

 <ol>
 <li>Arbitrary domain models, including EMF-based models.</li>
 <li>Generic GMF-based diagrams.</li>
 </ol>

 <p>
 The initial contribution has been developed using the conventions and development process of the Mylyn Context project.
 </p>

 <h2>Legal Issues</h2>

 The initial contribution is licensed under the EPL. We don't expect
 any problems during the IP review.

 <h2>Committers</h2>

 <p>The following individuals are proposed as initial committers to the project:</p>

 <dl>
   <dt>Shawn Minto, Tasktop Technologies (Lead)</dt>
   <dd>Shawn is the lead of the Mylyn Context project.</dd>
   <dt>Benjamin Muskalla, Tasktop Technologies</dt>
   <dd>Benjamin provided a proto-type of the initial contribution.</dd>
   <dt>Miles Parker, Individual</dt>
   <dd>Miles implemented the majority of the initial contribution.</dd>
   <dt>Steffen Pingel, Tasktop Technologies</dt>
   <dd>Steffen provided input to the inital contribution and will
 	provide release engineering support for the project.</dd>
   <dt>Carsten Reckord, Yatta Solutions</dt>
   <dt>Manuel Bork, Yatta Solutions</dt>
   <dd>Carsten and Manuel are experts for focusing models and have already
     integrated the code that will be submitted as the initial contribution
     into one of their commercial Eclipse-based applications.</dd>
   <dt>Andreas Scharf, University of Kassel</dt>
   <dd>Andreas was heavily involved in implementing the integration for the
     Yatta Solutions tools.</dd>
 </dl>

 <p>We welcome additional committers and contributions.</p>

 <h2>Mentors</h2>

 <p>The following Architecture Council members will mentor this
 project:</p>

 <ul>
   <li>Mik Kersten</li>
   <li>Steffen Pingel</li>
 </ul>

 <h2>Interested Parties</h2>

 <p>The following individuals, organisations, companies and projects have
 expressed interest in this project:</p>

 <ul>
   <li>Tasktop Technologies</li>
   <li>Obeo</li>
   <li>Itemis</li>
   <li>Yatta Solutions</li>
 </ul>

 <h2>Project Scheduling</h2>

 <p>
 On project approval, we will submit org.eclipse.mylyn.modeling version
 0.9.0 containing all of the features listed above.
 </p>

 <ol>
 <li>0.9 - March 2012 (Aligned with Mylyn 3.7)</li>
 <li>1.0 - June 2012 (Aligned with Mylyn 3.8, Juno)</li>
 </ol>

 <h3>Future Work</h3>

 <p>
 There are many potential opportunities for building capabilities on top of the existing infrastructure. Please see the project wiki for more details.
 </p>

 <h2>Changes to this Document</h2>

 <!--
 	List any changes that have occurred in the document here.
 	You only need to document changes that have occurred after the document
 	has been posted live for the community to view and comment.
  -->

 <table>
 	<tr>
 		<th>Date</th>
 		<th>Change</th>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td>8-November-2011</td>
 		<td>Added committer Andreas Scharf</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td>3-November-2011</td>
 		<td>Added committers Carsten Reckord, and Manuel Bork</td>
 	</tr>
 	<tr>
 		<td>18-October-2011</td>
 		<td>Document created</td>
 	</tr>
 </table>
 </body>
 </html>
	<!--
	This document is provided as a template along with some guidance for creating
	your project proposal. This is just a template. Feel free to change it as
	you see fit (add sections, remove section). We feel, however, that the
	suggestions represented in this document represent the reasonable minimum
	amount of information to move forward.

	Please keep the formatting in this document simple. Please do not edit
	this document in Microsoft Word as it adds huge piles of markup that make
	it difficult to restyle.

	More information is available here:

	http://wiki.eclipse.org/Development_Resources/HOWTO/Pre-Proposal_Phase

	Direct any questions about this template to emo@eclipse.org
	-->

	<html>
	<head>

	<!--
	Include the title here. We will parse it out of here and include it on the
	rendered webpage. Do not duplicate the title within the text of your page.
	-->

	<title>Model Focusing Tools</title>
	</head>

	<!--
	We make use of the 'classic' HTML Definition List (dl) tag to specify
	committers. I know... you haven't seen this tag in a long while...
	-->

	<style>
	dt {
	display: list-item;
	list-style-position:outside;
	list-style-image:url(/eclipse.org-common/themes/Phoenix/images/arrow.gif);
	margin-left:16px;
	}
	dd {
	margin-left:25px;
	margin-bottom:5px;
	}
	</style>

	<body>
	<p>The Model Focusing Tools project is a proposed open source project under the <a
	href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project_summary.php?projectid=mylyn.context">Mylyn Context Project</a>.</p>

	<!--
	The communication channel must be specified. Typically, this is the
	"Proposals" forum. In general, you don't need to change this.
	-->
	<p>This proposal is in the Project Proposal Phase (as defined in the
	Eclipse Development Process) and is written to declare its intent and
	scope. We solicit additional participation and input from the Eclipse
	community. Please send all feedback to the
	<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/eclipse.proposals">Eclipse Proposals</a>
	Forum.</p>

	<h2>Background</h2>

	<p>
	The Eclipse Mylyn and Modeling projects are two of the most innovative
	and widely used projects within Eclipse. They both have strong
	communities and high-quality toolsets. Modeling provides high-level,
	concept-centeric tools for representing and working with complex
	information, and Mylyn provides user-focused, task-centric tools for
	organizing and contextualizing complex information. The aim of this
	project is to bridge the two technologies, creating a unique toolset
	for concept and task-focused interaction with complex information. The
	project brings the productivity, integration and traceability
	benefits of Mylyn to Eclipse Modeling.
	</p>

	<p>
	The tools provided by the project also address one of the most
	significant challenges to the adoption of Model-Driven Software
	Development (MDSD). Models are often represented in diagram
	form. Diagrams are much better at depicting complex relationships
	between entities than are traditional text-based approaches. But they
	have significant disadvantages as well. First, because visual models
	capture relationships between entities so well, those relationships
	tend to be deeply intertwined, making it difficult to pick out
	immediately relevant nodes and relationships from the surrounding
	clutter. Second, despite conventional wisdom, diagrams tend to be
	information sparse. It can take far more screen real-estate to display
	the same information as in text. Ideally, diagrams could self-adapt to
	depict just the interesting things, making the best use of available
	space. In the initial implementation we mainly tackle the first part
	of this challenge. Diagram elements that are not relevant to the task
	are hidden and then revealed progressively as the user draws closer to
	them in information space.
	</p>

	<h2>Scope</h2>

	<p>
	The scope of this project is to bring Mylyn's task-focused interface
	to modeling tools:
	</p>

	<ul>
	<li>Diagram editors, such as for Ecore and UML models</li>
	<li>Model Navigators</li>
	<li>Model Outlines</li>
	<li>EMF generated editors</li>
	<li>Other modeling views</li>
	</ul>

	<p>
	The scope expands to other modeling technologies as well, which could include:
	</p>

	<ul>
	<li>Graphiti based editors and views supporting non-EMF based tools</li>
	<li>Forms-based editors using EEF</li>
	<li>Textual models using XText</li>
	</ul>

	<p>It is out of scope to provide integration of modeling
	technologies for other Mylyn projects.</p>

	<!--
	<h2>Description</h2>
	-->

	<!--
	<h2>Why Eclipse?</h2>
	-->
	<!--
	Answer these two questions: What value does this project bring to the Eclipse
	community? What value do you expect to obtain from hosting your project at Eclipse?

	What value do you get by having your project at Eclipse over and above the value
	of hosting at Eclipse Labs?
	-->

	<h2>Initial Contribution</h2>

	<p>
	The initial contribution work was developed by <a href="http://tasktop.com" class="external text" title="http://tasktop.com" rel="nofollow">Tasktop Technologies</a> and sponsored by <a href="http://www.ericsson.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.ericsson.com/" rel="nofollow">Ericsson</a> in the context of the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingPlatform" class="external text" title="http://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingPlatform" rel="nofollow">Modeling Platform Industrial Working Group</a> It is publicly available under the EPL v1.0 and pending contribution is hosted at <a href="https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling" class="external free" title="https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling" rel="nofollow">https://github.com/Tasktop/Mylyn-Context-Modeling</a>.
	</p>

	<h3>Components</h3>

	<p>
	The initial contribution is a full-featured Mylyn bridge for EMF. It
	provides a focused mode for diagrams that shows only the elements
	related to the task-at-hand, dramatically reducing information
	overload for engineers working on large models. In addition, the
	task-focused interface extensions provide Mylyn's one-click
	multitasking facilities for working with models, ensuring that
	developers can instantly recover from interruptions, and share
	model-specific expertise, when working with models in addition to what
	Mylyn already provides for engineers working with source code
	(see <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#User_Guide"
	class="external text"
	title="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#User_Guide"
	rel="nofollow">for details</a>). Currently supported modeling tools
	include:
	</p>

	<ol>
	<li>Ecore Models within the Ecore Tools diagram editor and project
	explorer extensions.</li>
	<li>UML Class models using the Papyrus modeling tools.</li>
	</ol>

	<p>
	The contribution also provides support at the API level allowing
	integrators to implement their own Mylyn support for existing Ecore
	models and GMF editors
	(see <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Mylyn/Context/Modeling_Bridge#Integrating_Mylyn_for_Modeling_with_custom_GMF_editors">for details</a>). Current service provider interfaces
	are extensible for:
	</p>

	<ol>
	<li>Arbitrary domain models, including EMF-based models.</li>
	<li>Generic GMF-based diagrams.</li>
	</ol>

	<p>
	The initial contribution has been developed using the conventions and development process of the Mylyn Context project.
	</p>

	<h2>Legal Issues</h2>

	The initial contribution is licensed under the EPL. We don't expect
	any problems during the IP review.

	<h2>Committers</h2>

	<p>The following individuals are proposed as initial committers to the project:</p>

	<dl>
	<dt>Shawn Minto, Tasktop Technologies (Lead)</dt>
	<dd>Shawn is the lead of the Mylyn Context project.</dd>
	<dt>Benjamin Muskalla, Tasktop Technologies</dt>
	<dd>Benjamin provided a proto-type of the initial contribution.</dd>
	<dt>Miles Parker, Individual</dt>
	<dd>Miles implemented the majority of the initial contribution.</dd>
	<dt>Steffen Pingel, Tasktop Technologies</dt>
	<dd>Steffen provided input to the inital contribution and will
	provide release engineering support for the project.</dd>
	<dt>Carsten Reckord, Yatta Solutions</dt>
	<dt>Manuel Bork, Yatta Solutions</dt>
	<dd>Carsten and Manuel are experts for focusing models and have already
	integrated the code that will be submitted as the initial contribution
	into one of their commercial Eclipse-based applications.</dd>
	<dt>Andreas Scharf, University of Kassel</dt>
	<dd>Andreas was heavily involved in implementing the integration for the
	Yatta Solutions tools.</dd>
	</dl>

	<p>We welcome additional committers and contributions.</p>

	<h2>Mentors</h2>

	<p>The following Architecture Council members will mentor this
	project:</p>

	<ul>
	<li>Mik Kersten</li>
	<li>Steffen Pingel</li>
	</ul>

	<h2>Interested Parties</h2>

	<p>The following individuals, organisations, companies and projects have
	expressed interest in this project:</p>

	<ul>
	<li>Tasktop Technologies</li>
	<li>Obeo</li>
	<li>Itemis</li>
	<li>Yatta Solutions</li>
	</ul>

	<h2>Project Scheduling</h2>

	<p>
	On project approval, we will submit org.eclipse.mylyn.modeling version
	0.9.0 containing all of the features listed above.
	</p>

	<ol>
	<li>0.9 - March 2012 (Aligned with Mylyn 3.7)</li>
	<li>1.0 - June 2012 (Aligned with Mylyn 3.8, Juno)</li>
	</ol>

	<h3>Future Work</h3>

	<p>
	There are many potential opportunities for building capabilities on top of the existing infrastructure. Please see the project wiki for more details.
	</p>

	<h2>Changes to this Document</h2>

	<!--
	List any changes that have occurred in the document here.
	You only need to document changes that have occurred after the document
	has been posted live for the community to view and comment.
	-->

	<table>
	<tr>
	<th>Date</th>
	<th>Change</th>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td>8-November-2011</td>
	<td>Added committer Andreas Scharf</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td>3-November-2011</td>
	<td>Added committers Carsten Reckord, and Manuel Bork</td>
	</tr>
	<tr>
	<td>18-October-2011</td>
	<td>Document created</td>
	</tr>
	</table>
	</body>
	</html>