tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5189870991970879112024-02-07T00:00:24.356-05:00Beware The PenguinEric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-66683648070509997722012-05-18T17:13:00.003-04:002012-05-18T17:13:35.278-04:00Am I the only person who catches himself trying to use <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Command+Space</span> (<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">Ctrl+Space</span> in Windows) when I'm typing in software other than Eclipse?Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-15808483832434922712012-01-18T09:50:00.002-05:002012-01-18T09:56:44.445-05:00Today is "strike" day to protest SOPAToday is "strike against censorship" day to protest the SOPA and PIPA bills that are attempting to pass in the US Congress. Please educate yourself about the potential negative impacts of these laws and get involved.<div>http://sopastrike.com/strike</div><div>https://www.google.com/landing/takeaction/</div><div>http://americancensorship.org/</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-66666410530321907602012-01-06T15:55:00.001-05:002012-01-06T15:57:07.632-05:00<p>I've censored the following, in protest of a bill that gives any corporation and the US government the power to censor the internet--a bill that could pass THIS WEEK. To see the uncensored text, and to stop internet censorship, visit: <a href="http://americancensorship.org/posts/33408/uncensor">http://americancensorship.org/posts/33408/uncensor</a></p>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-54312306805283384552011-12-23T23:21:00.003-05:002011-12-23T23:26:04.180-05:00Silly password requirementsIt's been a long while since I wrote an Eclipse-related post, but this just irks me enough to point it out:<div><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqd391hhpb0NYC5XRbltc7p7EV_DQ1s7Y57AZL7-oOXxRofsKjOSxT2DjLIbxW61axOraHIdNmoqPUgF3hlwX-GkRtO2L9aOfbRl2cOtpbIOqMAg8sFRfsgB8GK1LxmIF5egaIcU8gpBes/s1600/password.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqd391hhpb0NYC5XRbltc7p7EV_DQ1s7Y57AZL7-oOXxRofsKjOSxT2DjLIbxW61axOraHIdNmoqPUgF3hlwX-GkRtO2L9aOfbRl2cOtpbIOqMAg8sFRfsgB8GK1LxmIF5egaIcU8gpBes/s800/password.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5689545682490779330" /></a><br /></div><div>What is this, 1995? Users should be allowed to use a passphrase instead of this archaic way of trying to make passwords stronger. This is silly.</div>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-43600127358326617812010-08-17T10:14:00.009-04:002010-08-17T10:53:24.089-04:00Setting up .java files to automatically open with Eclipse on Mac OS XWith the 3.6 (aka, Helios) release of Eclipse, there is now support for opening files from the operating system command line or file browser directly into Eclipse. This has been a <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=4922" target="_blank">long-standing feature request</a> (one of the oldest requests to ever have been implemented, in fact) and many people are happy to have it. Here is a quick tutorial on utilizing this feature under Mac OS X to associate .java files so that they open in Eclipse upon double-click from Finder. Although this demonstrates using .java files, you can do the same for any other file type; as long as your installation of Eclipse has an editor to handle that file type, it should work just fine.<br /><br /><ol><li>Just to re-iterate, you have to have <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/helios/"target="_blank">Eclipse Helios</a> (version 3.6 of the platform) in order to take advantage of this feature. If you don't already have it, <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/"target="_blank">go get it</a>.</li><li>In Finder, locate a .java file that you'd like to open in Eclipse; right-click (or Control+click if that's the way you roll) and select Get Info<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQwBnAUid6CcrmRoqVxRZHTKwN19mUaPButNnSTWvNXBjTVSQlNt-KFVRqBJbuq8rxmQT3Ha-5KXjp8opICDzxezgAr15SXEqv-yQdQ7uCrukCIg8bA_ZUcU6j4hwEVdbAvLi9yfb0jge/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.31.39+AM.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 279px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilQwBnAUid6CcrmRoqVxRZHTKwN19mUaPButNnSTWvNXBjTVSQlNt-KFVRqBJbuq8rxmQT3Ha-5KXjp8opICDzxezgAr15SXEqv-yQdQ7uCrukCIg8bA_ZUcU6j4hwEVdbAvLi9yfb0jge/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.31.39+AM.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506387766372816546" border="0" /><br /><br /></a></li><li>In the Info dialog, under the "Open with:" section, click the drop-down list and select Other...<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwOh_6zwPIxVsuEzwsK9nHRj_1haVrfIX6wI3fwKHBw2H6jo4c45kOgLyrk20TawSfxGABrZ_icpiQWwgD_VbNFMP9fAuqDA8U6etY-K04WDc99uKu9IeZRzfpvThHKvBFkvz6q5jPajO/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.37.55+AM.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 242px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkwOh_6zwPIxVsuEzwsK9nHRj_1haVrfIX6wI3fwKHBw2H6jo4c45kOgLyrk20TawSfxGABrZ_icpiQWwgD_VbNFMP9fAuqDA8U6etY-K04WDc99uKu9IeZRzfpvThHKvBFkvz6q5jPajO/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.37.55+AM.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506388495827027026" border="0" /><br /><br /></a></li><li>Here comes the only tricky part about this process.<br />In the resulting Finder dialog to select an application, navigate to where Eclipse is installed. You'll see Eclipse.app listed but chances are, it's disabled; you can't select it. You just have to enable it using the Enable: drop-down list at the bottom of the window, as shown here:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD-igIoAK7gcJ6a8hnFODxPWzokNy8aRaavcaZned6k7tW5D6RFKa-F9Vc5LvW5qy_kP0hSBXcdFAHYNubLkSe7EKr4Ovy0eftFDkZ7YRx6UyOppJ3qvaVJhLnfDy1zxRc67x8M5IAS_tq/s1600/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.43.01+AM.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 380px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD-igIoAK7gcJ6a8hnFODxPWzokNy8aRaavcaZned6k7tW5D6RFKa-F9Vc5LvW5qy_kP0hSBXcdFAHYNubLkSe7EKr4Ovy0eftFDkZ7YRx6UyOppJ3qvaVJhLnfDy1zxRc67x8M5IAS_tq/s400/Screen+shot+2010-08-17+at+10.43.01+AM.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5506389858571919042" border="0" /></a>Once you do that, you'll be able to select Eclipse.app.<br /><br /></li><li>Before clicking the Add button, decide if you want to select the "Always Open With" option (checkbox). Then click Add.</li><li>Back in the "Info" dialog, you can use the Change All... button to associate all .java files with Eclipse. Even if you don't do it now, you an always come back to this dialog and do it later.</li></ol>That's it. Now when you double-click on .java files they will be opened in the Eclipse installation that you selected. If an instance of Eclipse is already running, that instance will open the file. Otherwise, a new instance will be started.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-2053365705013159852010-07-28T11:07:00.002-04:002010-07-28T11:14:38.193-04:00Tip of the hat to OracleAs most Eclipse community members probably already know, a recent change by Oracle in the JDK/JRE for Windows <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=319514" target="_blank">caused serious problems</a> for Eclipse. But in a sign that Oracle really does understand the importance of Eclipse in the Java community, as well as a nice gesture of cooperation and consideration, they've <a href="http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6969236" target="_blank">rolled back the change that caused the problems and released new builds</a>.<br />I admire Oracle's willingness to respond quickly to this issue, in spite of the fact that Eclipse code was admittedly relying on non-documented and non-API data. <a href="http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/">Ian Skerret</a> also deserves credit for directly engaging people at Oracle to make this happen.<br /><br />Hats off to cooperation!Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-49382066675376782282010-04-21T17:50:00.013-04:002010-04-21T23:52:17.105-04:00Launching Multiple Instances of Eclipse on Mac OS X<a href="http://www.blogger.com/profile/14088309262879705593">Doug Schaefer</a> recently griped that Eclipse on Mac "<a href="http://cdtdoug.blogspot.com/2010/04/mac-gets-no-love.html">gets no love</a>." I don't really agree in general, but I don't have the time to debate that in detail. I do, however, have the time to provide a simple work-around to one of his gripes, the inability to launch multiple copies of Eclipse simultaneously. As Doug mentions, this is inherent behavior for OS X applications, not an Eclipse-specific problem. But, there's a simple way to launch additional instances if you're willing to perform a few mouse clicks.<br />The basics:<br /><ol><li>Right-click (Command+click) on the Eclipse Doc icon and choose Show in Finder.</li><li>Right-click on Eclipse.app and choose Show Packages Contents.</li><li>Navigate to Contents > MacOS directory.</li><li>Double-click the eclipse executable there to launch Eclipse. Make sure to select a different workspace than is already open.</li></ol>Here's a short screencast demonstration (click the image to play):<br /><br /><script src="http://www.apple.com/library/quicktime/2.0/scripts/prototype.js" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><script src="http://www.apple.com/library/quicktime/2.0/scripts/qtp_poster.js" language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript"></script><br /><a href="http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/Eclipse%20second%20instance%20on%20Mac.mov" rel="qtposter"><br /> <img src="http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/Eclipse%20second%20instance%20on%20Mac.jpg" height="496" width="768" /><br /></a>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-75504502862719705952009-12-22T09:58:00.007-05:002009-12-22T10:44:03.136-05:00The best $5 I Ever Spent on TechnologyI recently discovered <a href="http://alum.hampshire.edu/%7Ebjk02/xGestures/">xGestures</a> and someone had better tell my wife because I'm in love!<br />I've been a long-time user of mouse gestures in <a href="http://www.getfirefox.com/">Firefox</a> (the plugin I currently use is <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6366">FireGestures</a>, but there are <a href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/tag/Mouse%20Gestures">others</a>). I recently changed to a combination of <a href="http://caminobrowser.org/">Camino</a> and Safari, but there aren't any really good gestures plugins available for them.<br />My search led me to xGestures, and it truly is the best $5 I've ever spent on a piece of technology. Not only does it make my browser more productive (or rather, <span style="font-style: italic;">almost as</span> productive as Firefox on Windoze), but as an added bonus it applies mouse gestures to every application. It's an amazing productivity boost.<br />For those who aren't familiar with mouse gestures, they are an alternative input mechanism whereby you combine a mouse click with dragging motions in order to trigger a command or action. Basic drag-and-drop is, essentially, a mouse gesture (one that every personal computer user is familiar with); the iPhone and iPod Touch use gestures quite extensively. I've heard them described as "controlling your applications by drawing little mini-pictures with your mouse." Wikipedia introduces them like this:<br /><blockquote>In <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computing" title="Computing">computing</a>, a <b>mouse gesture</b> is a way of combining <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_mouse" title="Computer mouse" class="mw-redirect">computer mouse</a> movements and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Click" title="Click">clicks</a> which the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software" title="Software" class="mw-redirect">software</a> recognizes as a specific command. Mouse gestures can provide quick access to common functions of a program. They can also be useful for people who have difficulties typing on a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_keyboard" title="Computer keyboard" class="mw-redirect">keyboard</a>. For example, in a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_browser" title="Web browser">web browser</a>, the user could navigate to the previously viewed page by pressing the right mouse button, moving the mouse briefly to the left, then releasing the button.<br /></blockquote><div style="text-align: right;">[<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mouse_gestures">full article</a>]</div><br /><br />For those like me who make heavy use of the mouse, the productivity boost gained by not having to find menu items or awkward keyboard combinations is outstanding. If you've never used mouse gestures before, it's probably kind of hard to understand the value unless you try them out.<br />As I've said, I'm in love with <a href="http://alum.hampshire.edu/%7Ebjk02/xGestures/">xGestures</a> on my MacBook, but there are also similar programs for Windows. I haven't tried any of them out, but some that look promising are:<br /><ul><li><a href="http://www.handform.net/gmote.php">gMote</a></li><li><a href="http://www.tcbmi.com/strokeit/">StrokeIt</a></li><li><a href="http://www.winmatrix.com/forums/index.php?/topic/18983-mazzick-a-wand-for-ur-windows/">MaZZicK</a></li></ul><br />So, <a href="http://www.planeteclipse.org/">Planet Eclipse</a> readers are probably asking why this is showing up there... Well, I haven't yet configured xGestures to do anything in Eclipse, but I'm thinking about it. Sometime today I'll set up some gestures for the things I do most frequently in Eclipse (like open the Find Type and Find Resource dialogs). But I'm curious if anyone else uses gestures in Eclipse and, if so, what gestures do you use frequently? I'm interested in exploring the power of combining the best IDE and this great "new" input method to make me even more productive. Eventually I'd like to explore the possibility of writing an Eclipse plugin that adds gesture support and contributing it for inclusion in the platform.<br /><br />Also, if any Windows users have other gestures programs that you like, let us know.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-35581991665285494642009-12-09T09:05:00.005-05:002009-12-09T09:31:23.222-05:00Looking For an Easy Way To Contribute To Eclipse?Are you an <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/users/">Eclipse user</a> who is looking for an opportunity to get more involved, to contribute something back? Maybe you've considered <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/">reporting bugs</a> (or even done so, but not consistently). Or maybe you've even thought about trying to implement a feature or fix a bug with a code patch, but were intimidated by the huge code base and/or ignorant of <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2009/09/28/how-to-fix-a-bug-in-eclipse/">how to get started with that</a>.<br />Well, if you happen to also be a Windows 64-bit user there is an excellent specific opportunity for you to get involved. The <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Helios_Simultaneous_Release">next major Eclipse release, code named Helios</a> and based on version 3.6 of the platform, is <a target="_blank" href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=293969">considering offering 64-bit Windows versions</a> of all the EPP packages*. But they need commitment from people who can test and report bugs with the Win64 builds; the team is small and given all the combinations of packages (there are now 9, maybe more by the time Helios is released) and supported platforms (there are currently 6, Win64 would be number 7), it's a daunting task to verify that each one is working correctly. But here is where you can help; if you are on 64-bit Windows you can offer to test the milestone builds of such a package and report bugs if you find them.<br />This is a <span style="font-style: italic;">low-barrier-to-entry</span> way to contribute real value to Eclipse, by doing something (using Eclipse) that you already do. Plus, you'll get early access to all of the new features, enhancements, and bug fixes that the 3.6 release is bringing!<br />So, go ahead and comment on <a target="_blank" href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=293969">Bug 293969</a> and add your pledge to help test - I'm sure the EPP team would be thrilled to have the help.<br /><br />* For those who don't know, the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/epp/">Eclipse Packaging Project (EPP)</a> is responsible for producing the various useful <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/">packages of Eclipse</a> projects that are the result of the yearly coordinated release train.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-44053332261529847742009-10-27T09:22:00.007-04:002009-10-27T09:42:54.205-04:00What's happening with Eclipse recently?It seems that recent times have seen some disturbing (to me) trends in the Eclipse community, most notably the loss (or significant reduction of involvement) of several key individuals. I count myself in that group, since my 5+ month search for Eclipse-related development contracts came up dry and I ended up taking a <a href="http://www.hanekedesign.com/">local job</a> that is totally unrelated to Eclipse. It seems that Eclipse has been bleeding valuable talent in the past year or so - or is it just me?<br /><br />The most recent happening that concerns me is <a href="http://eclipse-projects.blogspot.com/2009/10/eclipsecon-without-me.html">Bjorn's announcement yesterday that he has been locked out of involvement in producing EclipseCon 2010</a><a href="http://eclipse-projects.blogspot.com/2009/10/eclipsecon-without-me.html">.</a> While I'm sure the conference planning is in good hands, this seems like a strange decision given the past success; the cynic in me can't help but wonder if it has anything to do with Bjorn's recent outspokenness and willingness to voice controversial thoughts. Let's hope not...<br /><a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/mike/">Mike M.</a> commented on Bjorn's blog posting with a most-politically-correct "thank you for your service," but that is a far cry from an open explanation. I think, given his contributions to and love for the community, that Bjorn deserves more of an explanation. I am certain that the community deserves a bit of explanation.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-77748084874135605932009-08-19T14:43:00.008-04:002009-08-19T15:47:37.852-04:00Mac OS X and Eclipse Debugger's "Drop To Frame"After years of using it, I've become dependent on the debugger feature, <span style="font-weight: bold;">Drop To Frame</span> (described <a href="http://www.javalobby.org/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=15271&tstart=0" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="http://blog.hantsuki.org/2007/01/23/drop-to-frame-try-it-today/" target="_blank">here</a>, and <a href="http://www.vasanth.in/2004/06/08/eclipse-tip-rewind-during-debugging/" target="_blank">here</a>). Briefly, it allows you to select any level (frame) in the call stack during debugging and force the JVM to rollback to that point. It's a little difficult to explain briefly, but trust me when I say that once you've used it you quickly learn to depend on it.<br /><br />So you can imagine my dismay when I recently started doing all of my Eclipse work on Mac OS X and discovered that Drop To Frame is disabled. It is a feature that not all JVMs support (specifically, those prior to Java 1.4), but I just can't believe that the modern Mac JVMs don't (I've tried running my apps in both Java 5 and Java 6 JVMs).<br />I <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php?t=msg&th=152725">asked about this on the Eclipse newsgroups/forums</a> and on IRC, but no response so far. I'm hoping that the blogosphere might have some more insight...<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Update</span>: </span>it seems that Drop to Frame <span style="font-style: italic;">is</span> enabled sometimes, but only part-way down the stack, and sometimes not at all. The app I'm debugging has no native code in it, so that's not the culprit in this case. So I'm still looking for some insight into what enables/disables the feature.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-78839413705444682852009-08-10T09:52:00.004-04:002009-08-10T09:55:59.496-04:00Updated Eclipse Community Forums plug-in<span>I've released a slightly updated version of the little <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://bewarethepenguin.blogspot.com/2009/08/access-new-eclipse-community-forums.html">Eclipse Community Forums plug-in</a> I made last week. I added more of the standard web navigation buttons (back/forward/reload/stop/home) and eliminated the Login button/action (it was a real hack , didn't work 100% reliably, and I'm not sure anyone would really care about that feature anyway).<br />If you've already got 0.1 installed you should be able to update it from the About dialog, Installation Details, then select the Eclipse Community feature and click the Update button. If not, you can install it from scratch from the update site<br /></span><ul><li><span>http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/updatesite</span></li></ul>Still looking for feedback - even if it is "This isn't very useful, you should drop it."Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-84714960953347488992009-08-03T20:56:00.009-04:002009-08-10T09:52:01.421-04:00Access the new Eclipse Community Forums from inside Eclipse itselfThanks to Denis Roy, Eclipse now has a <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=284281">modern web user interface for its user/developer newsgroups</a>. While I, personally, still prefer to use Thunderbird to access the newsgroups the "old fashioned" way, I'm sure many users will appreciate this big improvement over the <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsgroups/">old web interface</a>.<br />The new forums site is still in a "beta" stage (please report any problems or suggestions to <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=284281">bug 284281</a>), but I thought it would be nice to have easy access to it from right within Eclipse itself. So I've developed this little plug-in that adds an "Eclipse Community Forums" view to all perspectives. The View is basically an SWT Browser widget that is hard-coded to the forums site, along with some basic toolbar buttons for navigation.<br /><br /><a tooltip="linkalert-tip" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibvF-L3qTx5ftHUjdO8FmQ9O-X5SYsL8PotG-N8YbBVyVRRRrCZpxN7KOLKl-H_fq8L2lRk9Cp-TNQ6s5JeAASdOPtsYJNFBh23KlTlrYCVSIrcaQCjXVjkchX2j_jD-gTfoBWld-Jgzy/s1600-h/EclipseForumsView.png"><img tooltip="linkalert-tip" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiibvF-L3qTx5ftHUjdO8FmQ9O-X5SYsL8PotG-N8YbBVyVRRRrCZpxN7KOLKl-H_fq8L2lRk9Cp-TNQ6s5JeAASdOPtsYJNFBh23KlTlrYCVSIrcaQCjXVjkchX2j_jD-gTfoBWld-Jgzy/s320/EclipseForumsView.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365921425848163954" border="0" /></a><br />A few notes on this "first draft" implementation:<br /><ul><li>I've only tested it on OS X (Cocoa) so far; please let me know how (or if) it works on Windows XP, Vista, and Linux.</li><li>The View is supposed to be automatically added as a Fast View to all perspectives (and it does correctly when I test it in a self-hosting environment), but when I installed it into an existing Eclipse instance I had to manually open the View via Window > Show View > Other...<br /><a tooltip="linkalert-tip" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtF1kHkLTGheUHn25GVArnSbsjiWweDZqYQKHSL5TtvcKlKsHWlm4yvethPjsK0edpQop5o7DWrByx_MiGIf0kxMvD0ZsyRe3G3TxTCcPPU-rZSrGmVIgDSgngSAa0CQp_Q8yNeuvHgQt/s1600-h/ShowForumsView.png"><img tooltip="linkalert-tip" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 236px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWtF1kHkLTGheUHn25GVArnSbsjiWweDZqYQKHSL5TtvcKlKsHWlm4yvethPjsK0edpQop5o7DWrByx_MiGIf0kxMvD0ZsyRe3G3TxTCcPPU-rZSrGmVIgDSgngSAa0CQp_Q8yNeuvHgQt/s320/ShowForumsView.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365921699043932034" border="0" /></a>If anyone has some ideas why it isn't automatically added after installation, please let me know.<br /><br /></li><li>The Login toolbar action currently only takes you to the Login page, but my plan is to have it (optionally) automatically submit your login credentials if you choose to store them. I need to get with Denis to help debug why my attempts at submitting a login via URL isn't working.</li><li>The Shortcuts list is an extension point that any plug-in can contribute to. For now I've included just some of the more popular <del>newsgroups</del> forums; if I get this accepted as an official plug-in, the vision is that different Eclipse projects would contribute to the extension point to have their forum included.</li><li>Notice the "Open in External Browser" button in the View toolbar (not the toolbar that is <span style="font-style: italic;">inside</span> the view above the browser). I waffled back and forth on whether to put the Login and Shortcuts actions up there, too. If you have a UI design opinion about that, please let me know.</li><li>My goal is to get feedback and improve this over the next week or two and eventually submit it for inclusion as a first-class citizen of the SDK and package builds. So please let me know what you think and help me make it better.</li></ul>You can install the plug-in from this update site: http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/updatesiteEric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-37049479997330608562009-07-01T15:20:00.018-04:002009-09-27T21:56:21.382-04:00Screencast: Creating an Eclipse download package "from scratch"<span style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE:</span> As of Service Release 1 (SR1) of Eclipse Galileo (aka, 3.5.1) the process described in this screencast is no longer necessary for 64-bit Mac OS X builds. 64-bit Cocoa builds of all the download packages are now available directly from the <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/">Eclipse downloads page</a>.<br /><br /><br />If the cave you've been living in does not have Internet service, then perhaps it will come as news to you that <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/galileo/">Galileo</a> was successfully <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/press-release/20090624_galileo.php">released last week</a>. It's a truly impressive feat to release so reliably so many projects <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclipse_%28software%29#Releases">year after year</a> - you'd think that corporate internal and consumer software projects would take note and figure out what it is that enables the yearly release train to succeed when <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000588.html">so many projects deliver late, over budget, or not at all</a>. But, I digress...<br /><br />Being a recent immigrant to the <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.theappleblog.com/">Nation of Mac</a>, I was among the glad to see the Cocoa port graduate from <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Development_Resources/Process_Guidelines/What_is_Incubation">incubation</a>. However, all is not 100% happy in Eclipse+Mac land. The <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/epp/">Eclipse Packaging Project (EPP)</a>, the small group that produces those <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/">easily consumable downloads</a>, the themed packages of plug-ins built on top of the core platform, has limited resources. And with limited people, they can not produce the packages for <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.php?projectid=eclipse#target_environments">every hardware/OS platform on which Eclipse is known to run</a>. Of particular interest to me is the conspicuous absence of EPP package builds for 64-bit OS X. After <a tooltip="linkalert-tip" href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=281501">some discussion</a>, it appears we the community can't make a 64-bit build happen until the first "service release" of Galileo, sometime in the Fall. I'm disappointed, but I (mostly) understand the position that EPP is in.<br /><br />So, what do we do if we want to make full use of all the 64-bit goodness of our operating system and Java 6 JVM? Well, it turns out that re-constructing the EPP packages from the "base platform" SDK is not all that difficult. Ekke Gentz has already blogged some <a href="http://ekkescorner.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/galileo-epp-for-cocoa-64-bit/">text+picture instructions</a>; my screencast below brings the process to life.<br /><br />Note: the URL of the EPP update site used in the screencast is<br /><pre>http://download.eclipse.org/technology/epp/packages/galileo/</pre><br /><br /><object name="Video" classid="clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B" codebase="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" standby="Loading Quicktime components..." height="400" width="490"> <param name="src" value="http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/InstallingEclipseGalileoPackage.mov"> <param name="autoplay" value="false"> <param name="controller" value="true"> <param name="enablejavascript" value="true"> <param name="playCount" value="1"> <param name="starttime" value="0"> <embed name="Video" pluginspage="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/" type="video/quicktime" src="http://www.rizzoweb.com/Eclipse/InstallingEclipseGalileoPackage.mov" autoplay="false" controller="true" enablejavascript="true" starttime="0" height="400" width="490"></embed> </object><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(51, 0, 51);">UPDATE</span>: The package downloads page has been updated so that the Mac 64-bit SDK download is available directly, rather than having to go through the "Other Downloads" page. This makes the process a bit simpler than what is demonstrated in the screencast. If you're following this process for 64-bit Cocoa on OS X, you can get the Platform SDK directly in the Eclipse Classic section, as shown here (click to enlarge):<br /><a tooltip="linkalert-tip" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWu_5lcf6SEtm-iv_9l77MPg9mLvlYOWCOM-D8SkZlvsztuMKswedxwF1sfAVtlHQjhycQwcHNy0iPj4UwhrZBi7tLxzmvVILmtuMy1SK2XqoMXoCeyoSOv7e0o4RIGFFfOoF1a7tvYqw/s1600-h/Eclipse64bitCocoaDownload.png"><img tooltip="linkalert-tip" style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 246px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnWu_5lcf6SEtm-iv_9l77MPg9mLvlYOWCOM-D8SkZlvsztuMKswedxwF1sfAVtlHQjhycQwcHNy0iPj4UwhrZBi7tLxzmvVILmtuMy1SK2XqoMXoCeyoSOv7e0o4RIGFFfOoF1a7tvYqw/s320/Eclipse64bitCocoaDownload.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5361002854806239010" border="0" /></a>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-3519591839533535972009-05-27T17:38:00.005-04:002009-05-28T07:56:07.166-04:00Looking for WorkAbout a month ago, the <a href="http://www.techcrunch.com/layoffs/">layoff</a> <a href="http://www.bls.gov/mls/">wave</a> finally caught up to me. Everyone at <a href="http://www.skywayperspectives.org/">Skyway</a> was gracious, saying repeatedly that they wish they had the money to keep me on board and that they'd really like to bring me back when the economy starts to turn around. But obviously I'm not holding my breath.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/ericrizzo">Here is my LinkedIn profile</a>, including plenty of recommendations from colleagues and supervisors.<br /><br />So if you know of or hear about any Eclipse-related positions, either contract or "perm" staff, please keep me in mind. For now I'd really like to try to stay in the Eclipse development world (designing/writing plug-ins and RCP-based applications, mentoring, training) but I'm open to just about anything to involves Java and Eclipse.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-36478636565980764232009-05-22T09:21:00.006-04:002009-05-22T10:03:33.045-04:00Eclipse: Talkin' To Users, ReduxThis is a follow-up to <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2009/05/14/talkin-to-users/">Wayne's post about the Eclipse newsgroups</a>. As I commented there, I understand that the barrier to entry into the newsgroups is higher than it should be, I really do get that. But, personally, I find web-based forums like phpBB to mostly suck. There are some things about them that I do wish we had on the Eclipse newsgroups, like:<br /><ul><li>the ability to earn and give reputation points for good answers</li><li>the ability to easily find threads that a given user has contributed to</li><li>the ability to search across multiple groups easily.<br /></li></ul>It is true that, other than the points system, most of the other features of web-based forums can be done with newsgroups if you have a <a href="http://www.getthunderbird.com/" target="_new">good client</a>. But with so many people using web-based email these days, isn't it too much to ask them to install a separate piece of software just to participate in the newsgroups? I think so, much as I prefer newsgroups myself.<br />I've been trying to put my finger on why, exactly, I prefer newsgroups and I think it all boils down to flexibility. Because they are based on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NNTP">NNTP</a>, an Internet standard, there are many clients that are capable of participating. That gives the user total control over his reading/posting experience. Contrast that with most phpBB-style forums, where the most control you usually have is the color scheme and whether or not you want a "flat" view or a threaded one.<br />The other big win, for me, that newsgroups have is the tight integration with my email; because I use Thunderbird all day to read multiple email accounts and RSS feeds, newsgroups fit right in like just another account. So, for me, it's flexibility and integration that win out.<br /><br />In the <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2009/05/14/talkin-to-users/#comment-1387">comments to Wayne's post</a>, someone mentioned <a href="http://fudforum.org/forum/">FUDforum</a> and it's newsgroups bridge. To me, this sounds like the best-of-both-worlds solution. It even has email list integration, so potentially we could offer total flexibility in how users participate: NNTP, web, or email, take your pick. To me that is an ideal solution.<br /><br />So, are there any other options available? Either competitors to FUDforum that can bridge between web and NNTP, or some completely different technology? Remember, what I consider important is flexibility, giving choice and control of the client to the user, and integration with software I'm already using every day.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-47659286206842002792008-10-21T09:35:00.005-04:002008-11-14T09:43:44.086-05:00Relative paths in Eclipse .link filesWhen setting up an <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse </a>installation (or a <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.pde.doc.user/guide/tools/preference_pages/target_platform.htm">target platform</a> if you're doing Eclipse plug-in or <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Rich_Client_Platform">RCP</a> development), it is <a href="http://divby0.blogspot.com/2007/06/managing-plugins-and-features-with-link.html">often recommended to use .link files</a> to <a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/os-ecl-manage/">keep things organized</a>. While this is excellent advice, all of the examples I could find use absolute paths in the .link files (for example, D:/eclipse/eclipse-plugins/MyFavoritePlugin), which is, in my opinion, less than ideal.<br />It turns out that the .link paths can be relative, and that is especially helpful if you want to check in your target platform into source control (CVS) or otherwise share it with others who may not install into the same absolute path (or even on the same OS).<br />The trick is getting the format of the path correct so that <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/equinox/">Equinox</a> can resolve correctly. For example, here is the outline of the target platform we use for developing <a href="http://www.skywayperspectives.org/">Skyway Builder</a>:<br /><br /><pre>TargetPlatform/<br /> eclipse-3.3.2/<br /> plugins/<br /> features/<br /> links/<br /> EPF-RichText.link<br /> maven2eclipse.link<br /> ext/<br /> EPF-RichText/<br /> eclipse/<br /> plugins/<br /> features/<br /> Maven2Eclipse/<br /> eclipse/<br /> plugins/<br /> features/<br /></pre><br /><br />In that structure, the ext/ directory contains a couple of "non-standard" features that we depend on, the RichText editor component from the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/epf/">EPF project</a>, and the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/m2e/">Maven integration plug-ins</a>. Now here's the meat of this post, what do the .link files look like to use relative paths. The <span style="font-weight:bold;">EPF-RichText.link</span> and <span style="font-weight:bold;">maven2eclipse.link</span> files each contain one line:<br /><pre>path=ext/EPF-RichText</pre> and <pre>path=ext/Maven2Eclipse</pre> (respectively).<br /><br />Note that the paths are relative to the directory containing both the base Eclipse installation and the ext/ directory. Also note that when selecting the target platform in the Eclipse preferences, you must select <span style="font-weight:bold;">/TargetPlatform/eclipse-3.3.2/</span> (not <span style="font-weight:bold;">/TargetPlatform/</span>).<br /><br />With this structure and the .link files using these relative paths, anyone can easily check out our target platform from CVS (and store it anywhere on their local file system they want), point their development Eclipse at it, and be ready to build our source code.<br /><br />If you have a target platform set up this way with relative link files, and it is a full-blown runnable Eclipse (a target platform does not need to be a full runnable Eclipse, but in my experience it usually is), you have to be careful to <span style="font-weight:bold;">not ever<span style="font-style:italic;"></span></span> run that target (don't launch the eclipse.exe or eclipsec.exe). Once you do, something happens that prevents it from working; for some reason the relative .link files stop working and thus it will not be a good target anymore. In our target that is checked in to CVS, we simple removed the .exe files so that nobody can accidentally run the target platform.<br /><br />One final note: this should also work across platforms (the link files are not Windows or Linux or Mac specific), although I have not actually tested that. If you can try it on Linux or Mac, please let me know how it turns out.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-19576423130090583312008-08-05T08:29:00.009-04:002008-12-08T20:27:21.616-05:00Customizing Builds for Your Eclipse ProjectsI was answering a question on the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsgroups/">Eclipse newsgroups</a> today, a question that I must have answered at least 20 times in the past couple of years. The question was, basically, "<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/article.php?id=76888&group=eclipse.platform">How can I add additional steps to a project's build?</a>" In my continuing (seemingly futile) efforts to make more use of blogging, I decided to put my explanation here.<br /><br />The Java Project <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/reference/ref-5.htm">build</a> really only does two things: it compiles source .java files into .class files into your project's Build Output location, and it copies any non-.java files it finds in your Source Locations to the corresponding place in your Build Output location (Source Locations and Build Output Locations are <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.jdt.doc.user/reference/ref-properties-build-path.htm">configured in the Java Build Path section</a> of the project properties). If you want or need to do more during the builds, you can augment it with <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/gettingStarted/qs-80_ant.htm">your own Ant script</a>.<br />Open the Properties dialog for your project and select the Builders section. There you can add your own builder to run after the Java Builder.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax_e7K0MN_4iHQQgU9NTKnzt3RpNTNMKRwgWu-BCqLzLcKU-A-zgS54lAXX1gxOOqYuuQGO9xg6Xl0cK2BNpA_TVg2NGpL-xVbjUo1GNjUkzBuitoaGZzv7j8gYpd2f40DvN6hbnYuTYE/s1600-h/CustomBuilers1.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjax_e7K0MN_4iHQQgU9NTKnzt3RpNTNMKRwgWu-BCqLzLcKU-A-zgS54lAXX1gxOOqYuuQGO9xg6Xl0cK2BNpA_TVg2NGpL-xVbjUo1GNjUkzBuitoaGZzv7j8gYpd2f40DvN6hbnYuTYE/s400/CustomBuilers1.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5231015738647290706" border="0" /></a>You can specify your builder as Ant or any arbitrary program. For many typical tasks (such as copying/moving files, creating a JAR, signing it, etc.) I usually recommend Ant because it makes such tasks very easy to implement. There are more details available in the <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/gettingStarted/qs-80_ant.htm">Ant Tutorial section of the Eclipse Help</a>.<br /><br />Be aware that all custom Builders will be executed for every build, which by default happens every time you save a source file (or something that the project depends on gets built). So having a Builder that takes more than a few seconds to start up and execute can be a real drag your the coding flow. If you find that you don't really want it to run on <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">every </span>build, I recommend opening the <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/gettingStarted/qs-85a_ant_view.htm">Ant View</a> (I like to make it a <a href="http://help.eclipse.org/ganymede/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/concepts/concepts-21.htm">Fast View</a> to tuck it out of the way but still easily accessible) and adding your Ant script there. That way it is only a couple of clicks away at all times, easy to manually invoke at the times when you need it.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-37122328636181389752008-06-24T13:25:00.005-04:002008-06-24T14:36:17.952-04:00Imminent Cosmic Collision: You and Eclipse Ganymede<span style="font-family:arial;">The arrival of <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/ganymede/">Eclipse's latest release</a> (named, like other Eclipse multi-project simultaneous releases, after </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganymede_%28moon%29">a moon of Jupiter</a><span style="font-family:arial;">: Ganymede) is upon us. It represents version 3.4 of the platform what I'd call the "core" set of tools on top of it, and I applaud Eclipse for not succumbing to the version numbering frenzy that most vendors seem to follow, where new releases with only minor or cosmetic changes are given entirely new major version numbers. I've been using the milestone and release candidate builds for a couple of months now, and here are some of the items that I've noticed (the good with the bad).<br /></span><ul style="font-family: arial;"><li><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_Getting_Started">p2</a>, the replacement for the much-maligned Update Manager (among other things), is a big step in the right direction. Up until the RC builds it had some pretty serious UI and error-handling problems, but it is now a pretty good front-end to the complex problem of managing an open-ended platform of plugins and update sites. I think there is still a lot of room for improvement and enhancement in the UI, but what will ship with 3.4 is certainly good enough and a LOT better than the old update mechanism (in terms of both underlying architecture and user experience). I still think it is too complicated and subtle for inclusion in the average RCP, but for developers (the primary audience of Eclipse applications, including the Java IDE), it will be welcomed with open arms.<br /><br /></li><li><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.eclipse.org/pde/incubator/spy/">Plug-in Spy</a> is a very handy tool for those of us who develop Eclipse-based applications (or for anyone who is trying to learn how Eclipse is put together and/or how to mimic what you see in the "standard" plugins). Just hit Alt+Shift+F1 and a convenient view will appear giving lots of details about current state of active Part (View or editor), such as the class that implements it, he plugin that contributes it, and lots of other details.<br /><br /></li><li><b>Mark Occurrences</b> has been enhanced to use different colors for write occurences and read occurences. This is a small thing that makes a big difference.<br /><br /></li><li>The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Error Log</span> view has been vastly improved. Not only is it now packaged as a separate plugin/feature that is more easily included in RCP apps, but it now has the ability to group messages by various criteria, provides a "quick search" box for filtering the logs, and allows you to easily view the logs of workspaces that have been used when launching an Eclipse app to test/debug plugins and RCPs. Very nice!<br /><br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">"Rich" hovers/tooltips</span>. This is a broad improvement to many of the hover/tooltip lightweight windows that Eclipse pops up to give you information about elements under the cursor.<ul><li>The Javadoc hover is really nice now - links work seamlessly, it is easily resizable, and it has a great little toolbar with actions like navigation (back and forward), transferring to the Javadoc View, and opening the source code for the thing whose doc is being viewed.</li><li>The debug hover is also much improved, letting you explore the contents of rich objects without using a separate View.</li><li>My favorite hover enhancement has to be the hover for errors and warnings. It now presents hyperlinks to Quick Fix options, right there in the hover window. Before, you had to manually invoke Quick Fix, but now my hands don't have to find the awkward keyboard combo of Ctrl+F1; I just hover over a problem marker and click the link for the fix I want. Very nice!</li></ul><br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Performance</span>. The UI is as snappy as ever, I don't notice and decrease or improvement there. There is reportedly a lot of internal improvement made to the JDT compiler to take advantage of multi-core and multi-CPU hardware, especially when running on a Java 6 JVM. I did seem to notice some improvment in Java build times. Startup time seems to be slightly better than 3.3, but that is hard to really judge because of all the variables that OSGi, p2, and the list of 3rd-party plugins that might be installed, can introduce.<br /><br /></li><li><span style="font-weight: bold;">Collapse-all button for the Projects view</span>. OK, so this one is only on my list because I contributed the idea and code for it :-) Still, it is something that I have longed for for quite a while: in the Projects view (usually used in the Java Browsing perspective), there is a new button to collapse the entire tree (Collapse-All), similar to what you find in other tree-bsaed views like Navigator, Package Explorer, etc. <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=210255">Here's the bug report</a> for the curious.<br /></li></ul><span style="font-family:arial;">Overall, I am very pleased with this release and applaud the various project teams for their accomplishments over the past year. I even can brag that a piece of my own code has finally found its way into an official Eclipse release, so that makes it especially cool. :-)</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">The next challenge will be getting </span><a style="font-family: arial;" href="http://www.skywayperspectives.org/">Skyway Visual Perspectives</a><span style="font-family:arial;"> working with 3.4 and, eventually, taking advantage of the new features and API that are available.</span>Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-87308898004843463832008-03-31T12:05:00.004-04:002008-03-31T12:13:47.271-04:00Podcast with Wayne BeatonWhen we were at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/">EclipseCon</a>, I did a podcast with Eclipse's official Evangelist, <a target="_blank" href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/about">Wayne Beaton</a> (yes, that's his actual job title - pretty cool job title if you ask me!)<a target="_blank" href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/about"></a><a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/"></a>. The topic was finding and giving help on the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsgroups/">Eclipse newsgroups</a>. Wayne just published it <a target="_blank" href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2008/03/29/eric-rizzo-top-newcomer-evangelist/">here</a>.Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-518987099197087911.post-61136826005585474112008-03-22T23:45:00.011-04:002008-12-08T20:27:21.732-05:00EclipseCon 2008I just returned from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/">EclipseCon</a> and, although I thoroughly enjoyed the conference/vacation, I have to admit that its nice to be home. <img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAOvm2PoCsdRAUIz-smugd_91IjF-2uwk7xTGoIH3IzQJAZsosQh_350AzryJ5epfJLSvsxkRRzinFNKR94IEK2FwWQmMB1B2Hz4TwB2FMfgNKaDW1G-csLLQUXI3lNDA_l-gyrsKdfWtf/s400/Eclipse+Award+08.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5180784742728849506" border="0" /> I guess I should just get it out of the way and point out that I was only able to attend EclipseCon because I was the winner of one of the annual <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/foundation/eclipseawards/">Eclipse Community Awards </a>(specifically, "Most Prolific Newcomer Evangelist") and the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/foundation/">foundation</a> was very generous in their help. Specifically, I have to thank <a target="_blank" href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne">Wayne Beaton</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/">Ian Skerrett</a>, and Lynn Gayowski for their encouragement and help - thankyouthankyouthankyou!<br />As for the award, not only did I get a spiffy personalized acrylic trophy thingy, but a totally tricked out "cell phone," an <a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator">E90</a> donated by Nokia - its really more of a mini-computer than a phone, very similar in function to an iPhone. Now I just have to read the 90-page User Guide and figure out what US carrier it works with. In any case, I was totally surprised and blown away by the quality of the prize.<br /><br />As for the conference itself, I have to say that the highlight was just meeting, face-to-face, so many people with whom I've corresponded, cooperated, and collaborated over the past 5 years. It is great to finally put faces to names like Wayne, Ian, <a target="_blank" href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">Ed Merks</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://tom-eclipse-dev.blogspot.com/">Tom Schindl</a>, Walter Harely, <a target="_blank" href="http://eclipsewebmaster.blogspot.com/">Denis Roy</a> (thank goodness he introduced himself 'cause I would certainly planted my foot well into my mouth if I had called him "Dennis") and so many more that I can't recall. For me the people aspect was definitely the most interesting part of the whole week.<br />As for technical content, I was impressed by the long talk on <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/mylyn/">Mylyn</a>, a project that I had been aware of and moderately curious about before; but after seeing it live and presented by its charismatic and passionate creator <a target="_blank" href="http://tasktop.com/blog/">Mik Kersten</a>, I'm determined to give it some dedicated time and share it with my teammates at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.skywayperspectives.org/">Skyway Software</a>.<br />Speaking of Skyway, I spent considerable time hanging out at the booth and I think our product launch was well-received. Most people seemed impressed with the modeling GUI (I heard words like "slick," "easy-to-use," and "wow") which, admittedly, I am glad to hear because that has been the focus of my work there. But I think we also heard some good feedback about potential directions to take the runtime portion; hopefully the community thing will take off and we'll soon see some contributions in those areas.<br />The <a target="_blank" href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Equinox_p2_Getting_Started">p2 effort</a> is making good progress and looks well on its way to solving the problems with the old Update Manager (and much more).<br />I was also educated about the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/performance">profiling tools</a> that are part of the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.eclipse.org/tptp/">TPTP project</a>. The presenters were clearly not 100% comfortable speaking English in front of a large audience, but the tools look quite robust and complete, certainly capable of competing with their commercial competitors. I will be profiling the <a href="http://catalog.afriterra.org/">Afriterra catalog</a> (and probably <a target="_blank" href="http://www.skywayperspectives.org/">Skyway Perspectives</a>, too) in the near future.<br /><a target="_blank" href="http://www.replaysolutions.com/">Replay Solutions</a>'s product also looks very interesting, but as of now it is only for JEE applications so my current (paying) work can't really find much use for it.<br /><br /><br />I'll close with something that won't surprise those who have spent any amount of time talking to me or reading this blog, a critical statement about the future direction that The Powers That Be apparently have set for one of my chosen technologies. I attended the Eclipse 4 (e4) talk and am confused and somewhat dismayed by the overwhelming focus on bringing the Eclipse platform (specifically, its UI) to the web. Because the details are vague (intentionally, because as with everything else at Eclipse, the real story will be determined by "the community"), I'm having a hard time verbalizing my thoughts; suffice it to say, just in the area of SWT and Platform UI, I'd rather see the growing mound of bugs and feature requests be more addressed instead of spending scarce resources on a completely new "platform." I understand and appreciate the need for architecture cleanup and evolution, but I can't help but wonder how much say "the community" will really have in this, seeing as nearly 100% of the committers are employed by the big member companies. Jesper asks some good questions and raises some good points in <a target="_blank" href="http://occasional-eclipse.blogspot.com/2008/03/its-architecture-stupid.html">this blog post</a>. I'm keeping my mind open, but with a healthy does of skepticism - after all, the last thing that Eclipse needs is a bunch of yes-men all nodding along with the ideas of a very small number of vocal, powerful committers and member companies.<br /><br />All in all, the week was very enjoyable. Jazmine and Little-j traveled with me and we had some wonderful family tourist days before and after the conference. I'll post photos later this week when my body recovers from the time-zone-difference whiplash...Eric Rizzohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08407727335073173803noreply@blogger.com2