Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
New Horizons
I have taken a new job at a new company and unfortunately will no longer be working on Eclipse.
I just wanted to say what a great pleasure it’s been working on Eclipse (again). It’s a really fantastic community around some excellent technology. As good as the technology is, it’s nothing without fine [...]
[ Back to top ]
e4 Modelled UI + CSS = Cool!
In our current e4 self hosting SDK workbench, the perspective switcher is a tab folder (we didn’t have time to put a more custom control in). I wanted to style it different than the editor/view tabs because (1) it has a different function and (2) with the new tab styling the perspective switcher tabs were [...]
[ Back to top ]
Why choice reduces usability
We usually consider choice as being a good thing, whether it be around choice of restaurant, chocolate bar, clothing, or technology. Choice makes us feel empowered, and variety adds richness to life.
Not surprisingly, embedded in the design philosophy of Eclipse is the notion that “choice is good”. Clearly then, if some choice is good, more [...]
[ Back to top ]
Make the presentation your own
Some people have asked me about the format for the keynote Tim Wagner and I delivered at EclipseCon09. For those who couldn’t attend, it can maybe be best characterized as a “play”: Tim was on stage seated at a pub table, coffee at the ready, reading the paper. I came up, Tim says something like, [...]
[ Back to top ]
AWS Rocks! And Rocks for Eclipse now too!
Sitting here in the second keynote at EclipseCon, Peter Vosshall from Amazon and Don MacAskill from SmugMug are giving a fantastic talk about Amazon Web Services and their use at Smug Mug.
I’ve always been a huge fan of AWS, it’s a well thought through and complete model of pay per cycle CPU, pay per use [...]
[ Back to top ]
Test-first programming success story
I’ve heard people talk about test-first programming but in truth I had never really given it a good try. Until now.
Working on the e4 CSS support provided a great opportunity. As some of you may know, the e4 CSS code was generously contributed from an existing external project. Unfortunately, some of the IP lineage of [...]
[ Back to top ]
Plan to panic
The deadline for proposals for EclipseCon09 is just two weeks away! OK it’s still two whole weeks, so no panic, but since we all know you’re not going to submit anything until the very last minute anyway, now might be a good time to plan on panicking.
Some suggestions, just to get yourself ready:
Scream “OMG! [...]
[ Back to top ]
e4 talk in London, Sept 19
If you happen to be in London on Sept 19, I will be speaking about things e4 at the Software Practice Advancement fall seminar series of the BCS. Please follow the link to registration if you plan on attending. I will be doing a general introduction of the e4 project, with emphasis on [...]
[ Back to top ]
Being less of an IDE will be a lot of work in e4!
There has been a growing discussion around the fact that Eclipse should look and behave less like an IDE. It was a recurring topic at the e4 Summit, and is a topic near to the hearts of many an RCP developer.
I came across the following help documentation while working on 3.4 help context [...]
[ Back to top ]
A funny thing happened on the way to EclipseCon (another e4 post)
Although it’s normal to be judged based on actions, sometimes if you know the person’s intentions it can help you change the way you feel about it.
So with regards to this whole e4 debacle, let me say that our intentions really were honourable!
We on the platform team care passionately about Eclipse. We know [...]
[ Back to top ]
