Eclipse is no longer exclusive to developers

Expert interview: Eclipse is no longer exclusive to developers

Interview with Lee nackman and Jim Russell Level: elementary Lee nackman, CTO, rational & VP, design, construction, and test tools development, IBM Jim Russell, supervisor, application development tools, Lotus software, IBM January 2005 Lee nackman is vice president of IBM design, construction, and test tools development and CTO of Rational Software. Jim Russell is the director of application development tools and IBM Lotus software, they explained how IBM combined eclipse with the cloudscape Java database with IBM Workplace Client technology and rich client edition to make it a powerful tool for cross-platform deployment. When IBM donated eclipse code to the community three years ago, it was intended to make eclipse a public framework for deploying software development tools-rather than a framework for creating end-user applications. But eclipse 3.0 is changing everything. For example, by adding an IBM cloudscape Java relational database and other enhancements, you can manage and support these clients with Lotus groupware on the server, IBM has created a new cross-platform end user solution (offering), IBM Workplace Client technology and rich client edition. IBM is using the client features of eclipse in other ways. To learn more about eclipse and how eclipse is used for cross-platform deployment, we interviewed Lee nackman and Jim Russell. The former is vice president of IBM design, construction, and test tools development and CTO of rational software, and the latter is the director of application development tools and IBM Lotus software. Below are some things they have to say. Developerworks:Eclipse Foundation recently released eclipse 3.0, which creates a new role for eclipse. So what are the new changes in eclipse and eclipse SDK 3.0? Lee:Many important events have occurred recently. Previously we established an independent, non-profit foundation called the eclipse Foundation, which managed eclipse from IBM. Now it has become an organization operated by all its members. Eclipse 3.0 is the first version born under this new structure. Therefore, this is a significant milestone in the evolution of Eclipse. Technically speaking, this version has made significant changes to the eclipse User Interface in terms of look and feel. Now, it supports more plug-ins and provides some new methods to organize plug-ins. As a result, so many plug-ins do not confuse users. This is a huge improvement. The new version also adds a "background thread" feature. With this feature, when there are long-running tasks that need to be executed from the IDE, eclipse provides better response time. The new version reinforces many APIs for the plug-in mechanism and builds the plug-in on the basis of osgi standards. The new version also introduces eclipse rich client platform, which is an eclipse-based platform that can be used to build actual client applications-including not only application development tools, it also includes various client applications. DW:There are several other developer tools for cross-platform application development, as well as some open source code projects. So why do Linux and even Windows developers still want to use eclipse instead of some gui widget toolbox? Lee:Eclipse is far more than a GUI widget set. SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) is a portable GUI widget set. One of the really good aspects is that it has a local sense of the platform, which is very important for most users. In addition to the GUI, eclipse also provides a platform for scalability. One mechanism allows you to insert functions into eclipse-based applications. This mechanism has been implemented in a completely cross-platform manner. Therefore, if you want to build an application that runs across Linux, windows, and a variety of different UNIX platforms, eclipse is indeed the first choice. DW:IBM has also released another Java-based product to the open-source community, a relational database called "Derby. What kind of impact do you think derby will have on the desktop application stack? Lee:Looking at most applications, for various reasons, they all need to manipulate data, and the best way to manipulate data is relational databases. Derby provides a very advanced Java relational database for the open-source community. The word Java is also very important here, because when you build a Java application, it is much better to use a database designed for Java and implemented in Java. Derby is also very small, and as I mentioned earlier, it has open source code licensing methods. Therefore, I think it will bring new opportunities for Java applications on the desktop computer. The key is that it can directly establish relational databases into desktop applications, there is no additional license price. DW:IBM Workplace Client technology and rich client edition use the commercial version of Derby, IBM cloudscape. How does this version work? Jim:Yes. IBM Workplace Client technology, rich client edition is basically an extension of the client's workplace computing model, which enables customers to build applications that can be centrally managed and automatically configured on their desktops. These desktop computers may run different operating systems, or even devices. Workplace Client technology is built on Eclipse. The enhanced eclipse framework and SWT widget set are a key part of the new functionality. by building the Client technology on the two, I think we have clearly indicated that, eclipse has gone beyond the developer tools it was concerned with at the beginning. We are using it as a framework for end-user applications. As Lee has pointed out earlier, many applications have their associated databases. As part of building a client technical platform, we need a database that is well integrated with a Java-based platform. Therefore, we choose to use Derby-or the so-called cloudscape-in IBM-as an embedded component of the workplace Client technology. Derby is a Java-based database, which not only makes it easy to integrate, but also means it does not need to be managed. Moreover, it encrypts its data storage, so it can save the information securely on the client without being seen by unauthorized users. IBM Workplace Client technology is an extension of the server management platform. A cloudscape-based database is an extension of the data to be stored and supplied to applications and the data that will be stored and copied back to the server. Therefore, cloudscape forms the core data unit of the technical platform. It provides us with an unmanageable, secure, and replicated storage. We can use it to flexibly deploy application data to many different clients and devices. DW:What other IBM Client projects are based on eclipse? Lee:Oh, there are many. New products recently announced by rational, the so-called "Atlanta release", are all based on Eclipse 3.0. The eclipse modeling framework, as a meta-model facility, is extremely important to what we are trying to do in the industry. The "help" system for many different products is based on Eclipse. Many Server products have eclipse components. For example, WebSphere uses eclipse in some of its functions. Some plug-ins for WebSphere Studio are eclipse-based, and the tools for WebSphere voice server are eclipse-based. In fact, most IBM tool products are now based on Eclipse. It is a strategic platform targeting IBM tools for developers and architects who use ide on their desktops. Jim:However, eclipse 3.0 can now be used to develop applications for end users, not just tool users. Eclipse's IBM Workplace client technologies is the foundation of end-user applications that can be deployed on many end-user desktop computers, not just the developer's desktop computers. For IBM Workplace Client technology and micro edition, some SWT technologies can even be deployed on mobile devices or popular devices. Lee:Yes. Therefore, Eclipse's tentacles have been stretched very far. It surpasses the design and coding tools and is extended to the end user's desktop computer. DW:I also want to ask about the repeated efforts to introduce sun and Their netbeans ide into the eclipse environment. Do you think this will happen? Lee:It depends on sun. Eclipse.org actively invites sun to join and contribute to eclipse. Sun decides what their business needs are and whether they should participate in eclipse. Absorbing eclipse has become a trend. It is becoming an industry-wide Java IDE and unified tool platform. As part of Eclipse, there is a very powerful C and C ++ IDE, and there are many other plug-ins for other languages, tools, functions, and roles. Look at the members of the eclipse Foundation and you will find that it is supported by some important roles in the industry. For example, companies like intel. Intel plays a leader role in the eclipse test and Performance Project, which is the autoed software quality (asq) Extension of the Hyades open source platform, it also adds focus fields for testing, tracking, profile analysis (profiling), and monitoring. Therefore, the eclipse ecosystem is growing. However, Sun must decide what is best for sun and its customers. DW:Thank you for taking the time to accept our interview. References For more information, see the original article on the developerworks global site.