The Pillars of Eclipse

Source: SD Times

Summary:
In the past four years Eclipse has enjoyed considerable success in the software industry. Most famous for its widely used open-source Java IDE, Eclipse also has become an important platform for building software development tools and general purpose applications. In fact, there are now more than 58 different open-source projects at Eclipse, and most of these have little to do with building Java development tools.

We also have a growing ecosystem of vendors and other open-source projects creating Eclipse-based products that span many different technology markets. Therefore, the answers to the questions “What is Eclipse?” and “Where is Eclipse going?” often depend on your point of view.

When we think of Eclipse, we often think of different user communities or technology groupings. Right now, we think of seven different pillars as a metaphor to explain the breadth and wealth of technology brought to developers by the Eclipse community. Over time we expect that these pillars will evolve and change.

Google Considers Joining Eclipse

Source: eWeek

Summary:
Google is contemplating a move to join the Eclipse Foundation in some capacity.

Greg Stein, an engineering manager in the open-source group at Google and chairman of the Apache Software Foundation, told eWEEK that Google has considered joining Eclipse and has talked with Eclipse's executive director, Mike Milinkovich, about the possibility.

In an interview following his keynote address at the EclipseCon 2006 conference here March 22, Stein said of the search giant's possible move toward Eclipse: "We're thinking about it. We've been talking to Eclipse. I've had some conversations with Mike, and we're either going to join in some capacity or we're going to donate money. But either way we want to help Eclipse."

Should Google join, it would be another major software-as-a-service provider in the Eclipse fold, as Salesforce.com announced its membership in Eclipse earlier this week.

"We've had conversations with Google about them becoming a member," said Milinkovich.

"We would love to have them. There's been discussion of them contributing in some way, but I'm not sure whether they'll join or not."

Microsoft And Eclipse: A Showdown For Ajax Leadership

Source: InformationWeek

Summary:
Web users are getting spoiled. Once they experience the Ajax-powered speed and interactivity of apps on Google or Flickr, click-and-wait Web interfaces won't cut it. Spurred by growing business interest, Microsoft and backers of Eclipse, the open source programmer's workbench, last week stepped up efforts to create Ajax-friendly tools for building interactive Web applications.

Unlike the mature technical standards for server-side software, tools and technologies for Web development are changing rapidly. Ajax is the symbol of emerging Web development, combining JavaScript and XML so that, instead of requiring round trips to a server each time a user wants new data, a browser's cache pre-fetches the information that might appear next. This leads to much faster interaction, with Google Maps among the star examples.

Eclipse leaders--which include IBM, Intel, Red Hat, and SAP--last week laid out the expansion of the developer's workbench into a platform that can compete with Microsoft in the enterprise. "Over the next three years, Microsoft will be very busy encouraging shops to move off of Win32 APIs and move to [Windows] Vista," said Mike Milinkovich, Eclipse Foundation's executive director, at the EclipseCon conference last week. Instead, he urged companies to consider adopting Eclipse's Rich Client Platform, a set of components that developers can use to put a highly interactive interface on enterprise desktop applications that, written once, can run on Windows, Linux, or Macintosh computers.

Jaluna joins Eclipse with embedded virtualization tools focus

Source: LinuxDevices.com

Summary:
aluna has joined the Eclipse Foundation, and will demonstrate an Eclipse-based tool suite for its platform virtualization software, at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) next week in San Jose. The company's OSware, Linux Edition, targets embedded systems requiring the full functionality of Linux, alongside pre-ported stacks and/or proprietary real-time kernels.

Jaluna describes OSware as a "high-performance" software virtualization platform for embedded systems." The company says OSware lowers BOM (bill-of-materials) and development costs, while providing enhanced intellectual property preservation. OSware was launched in May of 2004, and has since been used in embedded applications as diverse as carrier-class soft-switches, mobile phones, and set-top boxes (STBs), including DSP-based STBs.

Versions of OSware for Linux that are compatible with Nucleus and VxWorks are available off-the-shelf. Both Nucleus and VxWorks are supported by Eclipse tools.

Mark Milligan, VP of marketing at Jaluna, stated, "Eclipse has become the development platform of choice. In joining the Eclipse Foundation, Jaluna will continue ensuring interoperability with other Eclipse-based software components."

Web Services SOA Company XAware Joins IBM Eclipse and DB2 Viper Early Partner Community

Source: SYS-CON BELGIUM

Summary:
XAware, Inc., an enterprise software company specializing in Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, announced that it is working with IBM on its next generation SOA information management technologies. XAware was recently optimized for Insurance by IBM.

XAware, an IBM partner specializing in complex XML and SOA solutions has recently joined the IBM DB2 Viper early partner program and announced that their applications will be optimized for the next version of DB2 - code-named "Viper."

These optimizations are part of XAware's release of its complex XML and SOA business Service XCelerators (bSX) for insurance and its ability to continue developing leading-edge, insurance-focused SOA enterprise technology. The XAware bSX are comprised of pre-configured, appreciable SOA assets optimized by vertical industry. Building on this, XAware will also be sponsoring a panel, "SOA and the Future of the Collaborative Enterprise", at IBM's PartnerWorld conference in Las Vegas.

Free AppExchange Toolkit for Eclipse

Source: Irish Developer Network

Summary:
Salesforce.com Joins Eclipse Foundation, Delivers Free AppExchange Toolkit for Eclipse.

The Toolkit Helps Corporate and ISV Developers Create On-Demand Applications for The Business Web Dublin; Wednesday, 22 March 2006: Salesforce.com, the technology and market leader in on-demand customer relationship management (CRM), has announced it has joined the Eclipse Foundation and released a new AppExchange Toolkit for Eclipse. Available as a free download from the AppExchange Developer Network (http://developer.appexchange.com), the Toolkit provides developers with tools to customize, integrate and build on-demand applications on the AppExchange platform.

ISVs and corporate IT organisation developers alike can use the AppExchange Toolkit for Eclipse to create applications for use in existing Salesforce deployments or for sharing and distribution via the AppExchange.

Built on the popular Eclipse development platform framework, the Toolkit extends Eclipse beyond traditional software development and provides developers with a robust development, debugging and testing environment to create on-demand applications and mashups for the AppExchange. With the Toolkit, developers can directly access and explore the AppExchange data model and objects, extend the AppExchange's native Web presentation capabilities, and build and debug applications and mashups that use the popular AppExchange AJAX toolkit. Because the Toolkit is built on the Eclipse Web Tools Project (WTP), developers get code editing, source control and project management features out of the box, for free.

NetBeans Adds Features, Helps Eclipse with GUI

Source: OETrends.Com

Summary:
Sun Microsystems continues to push capabilities for its Open Source NetBeans IDE, expanding web services support, and adding support C, C++ and Mac devs. Far from feeling crunched by Eclipse’s continuing progress, NetBeans execs claim Eclipse’ success is just making NetBeans better. In fact, Sun is working with an Eclipse member to optimize Project Matisse for Eclipse.

Geeks speak at Eclipse conference

Source: SearchWebServices

Summary:
Santa Clara - Doing his best to bust the myth of the introverted geek pounding out code in a darkened room, Ward Cunningham, self-described programmer and infectiously social extrovert, took the stage yesterday at EclipseCon 2006.

He's now director of committer community development for the Eclipse Foundation and perhaps most famous for inventing one of the hottest collaborative tools on the Web, the Wiki. Since Eclipse development is done by teams of programmers working without the project management overseers usually found in private enterprise, all the projects in Eclipse require a commitment to being part of a community working in collaboration.

"What we produce is ideas, which some people define as intellectual property," Cunningham told his programmer audience. "It's done through collaboration based on a community."

In the absence of a manager who can crack the whip over reluctant workers, the Eclipse Way, as it's known, requires one thing that Cunningham put into a single word: Collaboration.

Innoopract Introduces First Eclipse-Based AJAX Platform

Source: SYS-CON AUSTRALIA

Summary:
Innoopract, a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation and a provider of products and services for Eclipse introduced the Eclipse proposed project "Rich Ajax Platform"(RAP). RAP aims to provide an Eclipse-based development environment with the capabilities to create so-called "Rich Internet Applications." RAP enables programmers to develop desktop applications and web applications following the same programming model, resulting in negligible extra work.

RAP offers an architecture and usage similar to the Rich Client Platform (RCP) and includes a library of components built in the Java programming language and Ajax. Developers can use these components to develop dynamic user interfaces in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods.

"With RAP we expand Eclipse with the features of Web 2.0," says Jochen Krause, CEO of Innoopract. In the pursuit of this goal, the German-based company will release the core of its W4T technology as open source into the RAP project and will support a supplier-independent development strategy for the RAP technology. "We are pleased to have this new proposal from Innoopract," said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of Eclipse Foundation. "It is great example of the technical innovation that is occurring in the Eclipse community."

Support grows for Eclipse

Source: IT Week

Summary:

Support for the Eclipse open-source development tool project is growing from strength to strength following news of increased investment in the platform by IBM.

The moves were announced at the EclipseCon conference in America, and should help IT directors considering Eclipse-based development tools instead of purely commercial alternatives such as Microsoft Visual Studio.

Computing giant IBM announced new Eclipse services and tools, and said it was piloting a new support offering for firms using the Eclipse platform. The support offering is aimed at firms that want developers to use the open-source Eclipse development environment with proprietary Eclipse based tools such as IBM's Rational branded tools.

Eclipse woos Windows Vista developers

Source: Channel Register

Summary:
The Eclipse Foundation is making a play for Microsoft's ISV partners deciding whether to port their applications to Windows Vista with a cross-platform alternative that expands their market reach.

The open source tools consortium has announced four new application frameworks under the umbrella Rich Client Platform (RCP) project. These are intended to help ISVs build client applications and interfaces using Java and XML.

Mike Milinkovich, Eclipse executive director, yesterday urged the legions of Microsoft ISVs to "look at RCP", warning that applications moved to Vista would not be backwards-compatible with older versions of Windows.

"Microsoft will be very busy trying to convince [ISVs] that now is the time to step away from Win32 to WinFX," he said. "In RCP, you find the framework lets you build Vista applications but ship product on Mac and Linux. If you are going to move off Win32 you should also look at RCP."

He added: "If you move your application to WinFX you are in a position to not be backwards compatible with Win32. "He was speaking at the annual EclipseCon show in Santa Clara, California.

Ajax all the buzz at Eclipse conference

Source: SearchWebServices

Summary:
Santa Clara - Ajax isn't the most prominent technology on display at EclipseCon 2006 this week but it's there sort of sneaking around the corners of the Santa Clara Convention Center like an unexpected guest at a party.

t may seem odd for a conference drawing upwards of 1,500 mostly Java coders talking mostly about Web service applications to not be focusing more openly on the hottest technology idea of the past year, but the Eclipse Foundation is just getting to know Ajax as it mulls over proposals for bringing it into the framework.

One of those proposals comes from IBM, the Eclipse progenitor and major contributor of expertise and money. When John Kellerman, IBM strategy manager for Eclipse Initiatives, is asked if there is room for Ajax in Eclipse, he says, "The answer is yes, most definitively yes." But having worked with Eclipse since 1999 when it was just a gleam in Big Blue's eye, he explains that the Ajax proposals now being considered are very new, dating back only to the first of this year.

The main IBM proposal is the Ajax Tools Framework, which Kellerman said has drawn interest from other vendors including BEA Systems Inc. and Oracle Corp.

Eclipse: Sun still welcome to join

Source: Computerworld

Summary:
With enterprise application development largely dividing into two camps -- the Java-derived Eclipse faction on one side, and Microsoft's .Net on the other -- it would seem that Java founder Sun Microsystems Inc. would align itself with the Eclipse Foundation. But Sun remains outside Eclipse, although an open invitation remains to participate in the open-source tools organization.

Sun remains committed to its own NetBeans open-source platform, announcing new initiatives pertaining to it while Eclipse sells out its annual EclipseCon technical conference here this week. Attendance is at 1,400 people, according to Eclipse.

Negotiations to have Sun join Eclipse in 2003 fell apart. Sun at the time said it was not offered "an equitable share in mutual development."

"There's no conversations going on, but they are always welcome to join Eclipse," said Eclipse Foundation Executive Director Mike Milinkovich on Tuesday.

Innoopract Introduces First Eclipse-Based AJAX Platform

Source: MarketWire.com

Summary:
Today Innoopract, a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation and a leading provider of products and services for Eclipse introduced the Eclipse proposed project "Rich Ajax Platform"(RAP). RAP aims to provide an Eclipse-based development environment with the capabilities to create so-called "Rich Internet Applications." RAP enables programmers to develop desktop applications and web applications following the same programming model, resulting in negligible extra work.

RAP offers an architecture and usage similar to the Rich Client Platform (RCP) and includes a library of components built in the JavaTM programming language and AJAX. Developers can use these components to develop dynamic user interfaces in a fraction of the time compared to traditional methods.

"With RAP we expand Eclipse with the features of Web 2.0," says Jochen Krause, CEO of Innoopract GmbH. In the pursuit of this goal, the German-based company will release the core of its W4T technology as open source into the RAP project and will support a supplier-independent development strategy for the RAP technology.

"We are pleased to have this new proposal from Innoopract," said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director of Eclipse Foundation. "It is great example of the technical innovation that is occurring in the Eclipse community."

Web-based business applications often fall short of the expectations. With web applications, the inclusion of a multitude of different technologies leads to substantially higher development and administration costs when compared to client-server applications. Furthermore, the user experience of web applications is still a big step behind the established standards in desktop applications.

Exadel Submits ''Enterprise Component Framework Project'' to Eclipse Foundation

Source: TMCNet

Summary:
Exadel, Inc., a leading provider of software, services, and support that enable companies to create mission-critical business applications based on open source and Java(TM) technologies, today announced its proposal to the Eclipse Foundation for an Enterprise Component Framework project, which would create an end-to-end business application development platform based on Eclipse.

Lombardi Software Honored with Eclipse Community Award; TeamWorks(R) Software Awarded Best Commercial Eclipse Applicati

Source: Chron.com

Summary:
Lombardi Software(R), the leader in Business Process Management (BPM) software for Global 2000 companies, today announced that its TeamWorks(R) BPM platform has been awarded "Best commercial Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) application" in the inaugural Eclipse Community Awards. The Lombardi TeamWorks BPM software was honored at an awards ceremony last night on the opening day of EclipseCon 2006.

IBM mulls support charges for Eclipse developers

Source: Channel Register

Summary:
IBM, which helped create the open source platform in 2001, is to pilot a support program for developers using the organization's tools plus commercial offerings running on Eclipse, such as IBM's Rational suite.

Details are yet to be finalized, but IBM told The Register that the services offered are likely to differ from IBM's support for Linux and Geronimo in the run-time world.

IBM's decision to offer support for Eclipse reflects the open source environment's growing presence among businesses - 30 per cent of enterprises and 25 per cent or so of small and medium businesses (SMBs) use Eclipse, analyst Evans Data Corp (EDC) estimates.

But it will have an interesting challenge in tackling price objections. This week at EclipseCon in Santa Clara, California, EDC said it had found little appetite for paid support from Eclipse users. Just over 30 per cent expect support to be free while a third said if they would pay anything at all, it must be less than $100.

Eclipse Expands, Urges Shift Away From Windows User Interface

Source: InformationWeek | EclipseCon 2006

Summary:
The Eclipse Foundation is expanding its core, developer's workbench into a broader platform that competes more directly with Microsoft Windows, at least within the enterprise.

The workbench, which started out integrating dissimilar Java tools inside IBM in the mid-1990s, was brought into the public arena as open source code in 1998 and became a runaway success as a unifying platform for third party tools. The fact that different design, coding, and debugging tools could work together under Eclipse made Java tools more competitive with the tightly integrated Visual Studio tool set from Microsoft.

Now Eclipse is looking to extend its success into new areas, including the user interface previously conceded to Microsoft Windows. It is moving rapidly, for example, to adopt Ajax-type technologies, now widely used in Web applications that interact with users in the way Google Maps does. And it is offering a standard client interface, the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, that can serve as a front end to enterprise applications running on Linux-based desktop computers or Apple Macintoshes, as well as PCs running Windows. While Macintosh and Linux users represent a small fraction of the total users in large corporations, the Eclipse foundation and its members think that picture could eventually change.

"The Rich Client Platform is pretty mature," said Mike Milinkovich, executive director of the Eclipse Foundation, which oversees the open-source projects that add to Eclipse's capabilities.

"Over the next three years, Microsoft will be very busy encouraging shops to move off of Win32 APIs and move to [Windows] Vista. If a company is considering moving off Win32, they should look at Rich Client Platform" as a more robust, long-term answer for their application user interface needs, Milinkovich said Tuesday at an Eclipse Foundation press conference at the EclipseCon 2006 conference in Santa Clara, Calif.

Actuate launches Eclipse-based BI reporting tool

Source: Application Development Trends

Summary:

Actuate announced the general availability of Actuate BIRT 2.0, a business intelligence and reporting tool, based upon Eclipse BIRT, an open-source reporting project. BIRT 2.0 uses a Web page design metaphor and allows report developers to import styles from existing Web site CSS files, according to the company. The reporting tool was designed to deliver ease-of-use and flexibility to report developers, who are typically not Java coders.

"Many business intelligence tools are too expensive and don't have the flexibility that developers want," says Wayne Eckerson, director of research and services at The Data Warehousing Institute. "There will be a strong market for low-cost, highly flexible BI tools and open-source BI tools are part of that trend."

IBM Continues Its Support for Eclipse

Source: eWeek

Summary:
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—IBM on March 21 announced that it is starting a support offering for developers using Eclipse as their primary development environment.

Officials said the pilot program is aimed at customers who want their development teams using both open-source Eclipse and commercial Eclipse-based tools such as IBM Rational software. IBM's services and support team will assist developers and their managers working in mixed software development environments. IBM made the announcement at the EclipseCon 2006 conference here.

In 2001, IBM launched Eclipse as an open-source project after contributing more than $40 million in technology. Then at the first EclipseCon in February 2004, Eclipse became an independent entity, with Mike Milinkovich as executive director.

However, IBM continues to wield a great deal of power within the Eclipse organization. For instance, reinforcing its commitment to PHP, IBM and Zend Technologies are contributing code to the newly created PHP IDE subproject of the Eclipse Tools project. IBM and Zend have jointly developed a fully extensible PHP Development Environment framework.

"By maintaining a strong commitment to open source, encouraging innovation and engendering community growth, IBM's strategy of investing in open source has planted seeds that will continue to positively impact growth and pay future dividends," John Kellerman, manager of Eclipse Strategy at IBM, said in a statement.

Eclipse casts a giant shadow in Silicon Valley

Source: SearchWebServices

Summary:
EclipseCon 2006, which opens today at the Santa Clara Convention Center, has come a long way in two years, both as an open source development platform and as a conference. Now Eclipse attracts a mix as widespread as applications vendors like Salesforce.com and PHP developers.

Two years ago, the first EclipseCon was held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, Calif., which seemed an odd venue as hardcore Java coders were invited to have breakfast with Goofy and technical sessions had Disney's greatest hits for background music. Last year, EclipseCon 2005 moved up to a hotel in the more sophisticated San Francisco Bay area and attendees were promised that they would not have to listen to "It's a Small World."

The Silicon Valley location for this week's event perhaps reflects the maturity of Eclipse. Having expanded from a hotel-based show to a convention center with three nearby hotels sold out, this year's version features 140 technical presentations in three days.

The sold out show will feature 45 software vendors hocking their wares, many of whom have become Eclipse members since the organization declared it's independence from its IBM parent in 2004.

Salesforce plugs into Eclipse

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
Adding another option for developers, Salesforce.com Inc has joined the Eclipse Foundation as a voting member and releasing a new AppExchange toolkit as a plug-in.

According to Adam Gross, vice president of developer marketing, the goal is to provide developers better tools for building Ajax-style rich web clients or mashups using Salesforce's AppExchange services marketplace.

Under the arrangement, Salesforce becomes an add-in member, meaning that it contributes tooling, gains voting rights, but is not part of the board. Furthermore, the tie-in with Eclipse does not mean that Salesforce.com is becoming a Java shop.

Instead, said Gross, it is to provide access to better tooling, much as its agreement with Microsoft provides that part of Salesforce's customer and developer base access to the Microsoft Office toolkit.

IBM Wants To Eclipse Unix Developers

Source: WebProNews

Summary:
The command line is a wonderful thing, and a developer skilled in the ways of vi (or emacs if you must) can build great applications; IBM thinks developers can do even better with its Eclipse IDE.

For developers new to the ways of Unix, the command line editor can be at best daunting and at worst an obstacle to accomplishing one's tasks. Freelancer Chris Herborth writing on IBM's DeveloperWorks website thinks the multi-platform Eclipse IDE offers enough usefulness that developers who switch may never type :wq in vi again.

SugarCRM Joins Eclipse Foundation

Source: TMCNet

Summary:

Open source CRM provider SugarCRM announced it has joined software development community, the Eclipse Foundation as an Add-In-Provider member.

SugarCRM’s participation promotes the foundation’s dedication to improving open source collaboration globally. As an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), Eclipse offers a development platform for both large-scale development projects and smaller open source initiatives.

"SugarCRM is delighted to be an Add-In Provider member of the Eclipse Foundation, as we will help collaboration efforts between both Eclipse and SugarCRM's open source communities," states John Roberts, co-founder, chairman and CEO of SugarCRM in a press release.

Eclipse AJAX project proposed, MySQL joins Eclipse

Source: InfoWorld Tech Watch | By Paul Krill

Summary:
A project to enable developers to build AJAX-enabled Web applications using Eclipse technology has been proposed by Innoopract, according to Eclipse, which is holding its annual technical conference, EclipseCon 2006, in Santa Clara, Calif. this week.

The Proposal for Rich AJAX Platform (RAP), currently is in the review stage at Eclipse.

"RAP will offer the ease of development of Eclipse, Eclipse extensibility and user experience by reusing Eclipse technology for distributed applications and by encapsulating AJAX technologies into simple-to-use Java components (as SWT encapsulates native widgets)," Eclipse said.

Also, open source database provider MySQL on Monday announced it has joined Eclipse as an Add-in Provider member. MySQL plans to contribute to the Eclipse Data Tools Platform project and collaborate with Zend Technologies and others on the proposed Eclipse PHP IDE project.

Innoopract Proposes New AJAX Project for Eclipse

Source: eWeek

Summary:
Innoopract Informationssysteme is proposing this week at EclipseCon a new project to the Eclipse Foundation to help developers create AJAX-enabled applications using Eclipse technology and methodology.

The Karlsruhe, Germany, company is proposing the Rich AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) Platform, or RAP, Project, an open-source project that aims to enable developers to build rich, AJAX-enabled Web applications by using the Eclipse development model, plug-ins and a Java-only API.

According to the proposal, Innoopract will contribute code from its W4Toolkit to the project to enable user interface development based on a Java component library. The component library offers a mechanism for browser detection and can adapt to the capabilities of browsers by using rendering kits, the proposal said.

Innoopract's contribution will encompass some of the core functionality for a Rich AJAX Platform, including a rich set of UI components with a Java API, event-driven program control, a generic mechanism for updating arbitrary UI elements of a Web UI based on AJAX, a lifecycle handling comparable to the one used in JavaServer Faces, a mechanism for browser detection, and rendering kits that enable applications to adapt to browser capabilities, the proposal said.

Wind River wins large US Army software contract

Source: LinuxDevices

Summary:
In a deal estimated between $14M and $20M, Wind River's Workbench developer toolsuite has been selected by Boeing for the US Army's "Future Combat System" (FCS) program. Wind River says its tools will enable the program to standardize on a single development environment across multiple sub-projects involving multiple operating systems. The deal also validates the open source "Eclipse" platform that underpins the Workbench tools, Wind River says.
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Wind River's WorkBench is based on Eclipse 3.1. Eclipse is an open source framework for cross-vendor tools integration that was originally donated to the open source community by IBM. It has since been widely adopted by the device development community, with TimeSys, Wind River, MontaVista, LynuxWorks, Sysgo, Enea, and possibly others offering Eclipse-based toolsuites. Additionally, Eclipse tools are offered by chip companies such as Intel and Texas Instruments, and by software companies such as Devicescape, to name a few

Ajax simplifies browsing

Source: Australian IT

Summary:
A NEW technology is quickly gaining acceptance worldwide as it simplifies internet browsing, making it easier for users to shop, work, plan, correspond and navigate.
Ajax, short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, combines several browser technologies, including JavaScript, CSS, DOM, HTTP and XML, to create user experiences that integrate seamlessly with web pages.
The concept allows browser-based tasks to be completed on desktops rather than having to travel back to a central server to be updated. The open client technology can be incrementally adopted into existing applications and websites as needed.
Users of Ajax-based applications typically do not have to refresh a web browser because information is automatically updated.
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To accelerate the adoption of Ajax, IBM is supporting the Eclipse Ajax Toolkit Framework.
The proposed Eclipse Ajax toolkit framework is the first approach that supports multiple Ajax runtime toolkits.
The runtimes currently supported are from Dojo, an Open Source JavaScript library, OpenRico and Zimbra.

Genuitec adapts NetBeans UI to eclipse

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
One of the earliest members of Eclipse is about to borrow what is arguably the most popular feature of the rival NetBeans.

Genuitec LLC, known for its MyEclipse integrated development environment, is about to demonstrate NetBeans' Matisse user interface on an Eclipse tool at the EclipseCon conference next week.

"Matisse is light years ahead of VI [Eclipse Visual Interface]," said Genuitec president Maher Masri, explaining the move.

Sun Microsystems began NetBeans as an open source framework to develop Java tooling. Shortly thereafter, IBM spun off Eclipse from its Java tooling efforts as an open source project. To date, Eclipse has drawn far more third-party support than NetBeans.

To get an idea of how Genuitec mixed and matched features, it helps to understand that the main differentiation between Eclipse and NetBeans Java tools frameworks is that each supports different sets of visual screen controls. While NetBeans supports Swing, Eclipse is bound to the AWT visual controls.

Genuitec decoupled the Matisse UI from Swing so it could generate AWT. It would accomplish this by using the JSR 198 standard for Java IDE plug-ins, which is awaiting final approval by the Java Community Process.

Approval is a foregone conclusion, as the JSR-198 expert group includes all the major Java household names from Borland to BEA, IBM, Oracle, SAP, and Sun. Even the Apache foundation is involved.

In effect, Matisse won't become part of MyEclipse, which itself is an IDE plug-in to the Eclipse framework. Instead, it would become a separate plug-in to Eclipse, and thereby interoperate with other Eclipse plug-ins (including, obviously, MyEclipse)

New Developer Tools Coming at EclipseCon

Source: eWeek

Summary:
With the Eclipse open-source integrated development environment platform emerging as a strong contender to be the IDE of choice for developers, vendors are gearing up for the EclipseCon conference March 20-23 in Santa Clara, Calif.

Genuitec, a founding member of the Eclipse Foundation, will be previewing its upcoming release of MyEclipse 5.0 at EclipseCon.

Among the MyEclipse 5.0 features that will be previewed is project Matisse4MyEclipse, an Eclipse integration of the popular Matisse Swing user-interface designer from the Sun NetBeans project, said Maher Masri, president of Genuitec. Matisse4MyEclipse provides simple and intuitive visual layout of UIs within Eclipse, so developers can design UIs without having to understand the complexities of Swing layout managers, widget customization, alignment or spacing, Masri said.

MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench is an Eclipse-based enterprise-class tool suite for Java Enterprise Edition, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) or Web 2.0 applications, Masri said.

"Incorporation of Matisse exemplifies MyEclipse's leadership in innovative uses of Eclipse technology to tear down universally perceived technology barriers in order to provide MyEclipse users the best-of-breed productivity tools for designing, developing and delivering complex JEE, Web/AJAX, and now Swing desktop applications," Masri said in a statement.

Microsoft, Eclipse lead IDE popularity

Source: Computer Business Review

Summary:
In a recent survey of 700 developers, respondents may have rated Microsoft Visual Studio as the most popular, but they ranked other integrated development environments higher when it comes to features.

Admittedly, that's not surprising, as Microsoft dominates the .NET IDE market, whereas numerous vendors carve up the Java segment. In Java, Eclipse was by far the top IDE, according to the Evans Data survey.

Other IDEs with large followings included Macromedia (now Adobe) Studio MX, which is used largely for painting web clients; Oracle 9i Developer Suite (which includes the Java-based JDeveloper); and Borland JBuilder.

But the study revealed a few surprises. Top ranked in features were IBM's Rational Application Developer, followed in order by Borland JBuilder and Sun Java Studio. Conversely, the study claims Oracle has neglected its tools and said BEA, whose WebLogic Studio remains an immature product, was ranked bottom.

Metatomix Provides Free Semantic Toolkit for Eclipse Developers Worldwide

Source: MarketWire

Summary:
Metatomix, Inc., the leader in semantic composite applications, today announced the availability of its Semantic Toolkit free to Eclipse developers worldwide, enabling them to create and modify semantically enabled software solutions quickly, easily and reliably. The toolkit, developed and in current use at Metatomix, enables developers to take full advantage of the most advanced semantic technology standards approved by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

McCabe Releases Significant Upgrade to SCM Solution

Source: PRWeb

Summary:
McCabe Software Inc. announces the release of McCabe CM 3.2, separating itself from the pack with drag-and-drop change migration, dynamic workspace management, and enhanced Eclipse support that includes seamless refactoring. This latest version of McCabe CM promises to save development teams weeks with every release cycle.

“McCabe CM 3.2 reveals the real power of change based version control, and makes complex release management as easy as drag and drop,” says Barbara Dumas, McCabe’s Director of SCM Solutions.

McCabe CM’s renowned Selective Migration has taken another step forward by providing even faster and easier methods for sharing change across parallel development streams. McCabe CM’s Stream View now allows you to drag a change from one release stream and drop it into another. This functionality allows a user to apply change across different versions in seconds as opposed to the hours or days it would take with other SCM tools.

McCabe’s enhanced Eclipse support features seamless refactoring, which allows the renaming of files without the standard loss of change history and auditability. “Seamless refactoring is an essential capability if an organization has any hope of complying with federal, state or internal software audits like Sarbanes-Oxley,” says Dumas.

IBM Unveils New Open Source Development Software for Web Developers

Source: IT News Online

Summary:
IBM has introduced enhanced open source development software for Web developers to use popular browser tools to build, test and run new voice applications.

The new speech application programming interface (API) software has been recently developed as part of the Eclipse Foundation's Voice Tools Project to speed the adoption of VoiceXML applications for phones, handheld devices, cars and the Web. VoiceXML is a leading language for developing voice recognition applications. The project ultimately aims to connect Eclipse developers and VoiceXML developers, allowing for common tools and architectures to spur innovation.

Developed as part of the Voice Tools Project by IBM, Tellme and other participating companies, the API creates a common developer framework that can work with any VoiceXML platform. By using this framework, an Eclipse-based tool can interoperate with a compatible VoiceXML platform.

"This project reinforces IBM's commitment to open source technologies that grow the voice industry," said Brent Metz, Voice Tools Project Lead, IBM. "Now every developer, big or small, can build speech applications. The Voice Tools Project is designed to remove the cost barrier of entry so that developers can add speech to a wide variety of applications."

Workbench extends Eclipse capabilities: News from Genuitec

Source: EletronicsTalk

Summary:
Genuitec has announced availability of the MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench 4.1. Backed by world-class support, MyEclipse is the comprehensive J2EE- and web-development tool suite designed for enterprise developers and consultants looking for top value in a commercial-grade integrated development environment (IDE). MyEclipse 4.1 is the first Eclipse-based platform to support AJAX development, offer an integrated image editor and include new web 2.0 development capabilities.

'MyEclipse has significantly changed our workflow, allowing us to easily code, deploy, test and debug in a cycle that went from minutes to seconds', said Wayne Townsend-Merino of the San Diego Supercomputer Centre.

'The value of MyEclipse far exceeds the price, justified by countless hours saved by just the hot-deploy feature alone'.

MyEclipse is based on and significantly extends Eclipse 3.1 to include support for UML, XML, HTML, Struts, JSF, JSPT, JavaScript, CSS, EJB, Tapestry, Hibernate, Spring and database/SQL/ERD technologies.