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Re: [Linux] The Size of Eclipse (IDE) Projects Doubled in Just One Year

On Jun 27, 7:06 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Eclipse Ships Largest-Ever Release of Leading Open Source Software Development
> Platform
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Europa features 21 Eclipse projects for software developers and is more
> | than double the size of last year's record-setting release.
> `----

As always, Roy created a great posting with several articles on the
same theme.

Eclipse has become the "New Emacs".  If you've never used Emacs, it's
quite
an experience.  During the 1980s, Emacs gave UNIX users many of the
most
popular features of Windows, including explorer (dired), multiple
windows,
multiple applications running in different Windows.

In fact, Emacs was the inspiration for the X11 xlib/server concept.
Initially,
the X10 group was thinking in terms of enhancements to termcap, to
support
graphics.  After exploring a few different graphics terminals and
different approaches,
the simplicity and beauty of the way emacs just defined functions for
each graphic function,
then had that function combine the arguments and device specific
commands was very
compelling.  The prospect of having X-Wire meant that there would be
some great flexibility.
Early implementations had the X-Server on a UNIX box, sending grophics
commands to
Tektronics 4010, DEC VT300, or there graphics terminals.  Some
companies created
Xterminals that ran on UNIX and sent commands to graphics "terminals"
running on
simple MS-DOS PCs.  Some even converted X11 commands to Postscript and
sent
those commands (Sun).  Got WAY off topic here :-D

The point is that Eclipse has the flexibility of Emacs, with the
Graphics and layering
of a browser.  The browser paradigm is a bit limiting.  There have
been numerous attempts
to "enhance" a browser, by adding Java applets, ActiveX, and other
proprietary "extensions",
but it's still very limited.  There are security issues.  There are
also platform portability issues.

Eclipse, AJAX, and SOA are begining to redefine desktop software.
Back in the early 1990s,
when would-be "Publishers" were considering putting their hosts
online, they wanted to limit
the access to mostly a "Read Only" format, with the ability to send
requests similar to a block-mode terminal (shades of CICS).  The HTTP/
HTML/CGI requests were easier to parse and kept the server's job very
simple.

Eclipse provides a nice platform-independent framework for
applications that need to run on Windows, Macs, Linux, and even
Solaris or AIX (or almost any other machine that can run Java).  From
the beginning, Eclipse was developed, tested, and supported as a
multiplatform environment.  They wanted to support Sun's original
concept of "Write Once, Run anywhere".  By using plug-ins and
providing a standard framework using core Java components, the only
requirement for an application, is that the platform supports the
Java2 standard.

> http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,129556.shtml
[snip]
> http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2006/12/12/220548/developers-u...
>
> Developers Embrace Java, Drop Visual Basic
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Use of Visual Basic has dropped 35% since the spring, says a
> | poll of more than 430 North American developers done by research
> | company Evans Data.
> | [...]
> | Developers have abandoned Microsoft's Visual Basic in droves
> | during the last six months, and they're using Java more than any
> | other development language, according to a recently published
> | survey.

Visual Basic and C# have pretty much become synonymous with "Microsoft
Only".  Microsoft has fed the Mono project "teaser" code, but not
really enough to provide a fully functional client system for .NET.
Meanwhile, J2SE, J2EE, AJAX, and Eclipse have created an "All
platforms" solution.

Sun bailed out of the desktop/laptop market years ago, but they may
consider returning if it begins to look like Solaris/Java can be used
to create a robust suite of applications that can compete with Linux
and Microsoft.

IBM has been a big supporter of Java, Linux, and OSS.  They originally
created Eclipse as a "skunk-works" project, and then created a neutral
non-profit organization supported and managed by a group of people who
are committed to the "Write Once Run Anywhere" concept.

Unlike Emacs, Eclipse does support, and even enncourage commercial
applications.  IBM offers WebSphere Application Developer (WSAD), and
several Rational products including Rathional Application Developer,
Rational Software Architect, and Rational System Designer.  Lotus
Notes 8 is based on Eclipse.  It has many nice new features that
weren't practical in the C++ version, and the OSS framework has made
it much easier to implement and customize.

At the same time, there are some great OSS plug-ins as well.
Everything from project management tools to UML to IDEs for several
development languages and dialects.

Developers can't afford to put all of their eggs in the Microsoft
Basket anymore.  Microsoft's royalty demands, limited distribution
channels, and poaching of new markets, has pretty much made Windows-
Only platforms an undesirable option.

Keep in mind that Microsoft isn't just poaching little guys anymore.
They are poaching Symantic, McAffee, Borland, Corel, and Apple.  In
fact, there are very few companies that Microsoft hasn't effectively
driven out of the Windows market.  Quicken enjoys some degree of
protection from the federal courts.  Ironically, even H&R Block,
Microsoft's "partner' for Money, is looking at multi-platform
solutions based on Java and possibly OSS.

Even the Game makers are losing interest in DirectX.  After spending
$millions to switch from OpenGL to DirectX, they have found that
Microsoft changes the standards so often that many are just going back
to OpenGL and using an OpenGL to DirectX wrapper library.  With one
code-base, they can write the same application for X-Box, Vista, XP,
Linux, PlayStation (2-3), Nintendo, and others, without having to
maintain two code sets.

> Eclipse Is Still Going Strong
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | In the intervening years, the Eclipse open-source development
> | platform has grown well beyond the IDE space, branching out into
> | areas such as reporting, modeling, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript
> | and XML) development, SOA (service-oriented architecture) tooling,
> | RCP (rich-client platform) technology, team development, and
> | support for other languages beyond Java.

At this point, ActiveX is becoming "non-grata" at many companies.  The
fact that Microsoft continues to use this as a "Back Door" into
Windows
systems still irks many security managers.  The problem is that the
hackers use the back door too.  If you have a little "doggie door"
that is
big enough for a small child to crawl through, it's easy enough for
the kid
to get in, and then let a team of 4-5 well armed adults come in and
'clean you out'
while you are asleep.  Corporations don't like to talk about these
experiences,
but they have become far too common.  Even 1-2 attacks per company per
year,
when there is the threat of stolen company information, can be way too
much.

The irony is that Eclipse might even give Windows a longer life-span.
Eclipse
based applications based on AJAX, SOA, and RCP can often provide
similar
high-quality interfaces to those found in Linux-to-Linux, Linux-to-
Unix, and Unix-to-Unix
based applications.  Many companies have been able to use VPNs to
connect *Nix
based workstatinos to *nix based servers and clusters.  The result is
often a "light"
interface that has most of the same features and functions as being at
the console.

Imagine if your only access to Windows was through a Web Browser.  You
could do
many things, but most of the applications you've come to know and
love, wouldn't work.
This is pretty much what Windows has done to Linux/Unix.  But when
Linux is
connected to Linux, or Linux is connected to UNIX, you have a much
faster and
more efficient interaction with the server.  It becomes possible to
interact with dozens of
computers in real-time, to better serve customers.

Eclipse/AJAX/SOA/RCP provides similar "rich client" experiences,
offering real-time
updates of information, instead of having to have the Web Browser
"poll" for information.

One of the reasons that "Push" never succeeded very well, was because
there weren't
clients designed to turn the real-time content into displays that were
actually meaningful
to customers.



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