[eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] RCP in E4

["Toedter, Kai (CT)" <kai.toedter@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi All,

I followed all the discussion about modeling and new UI approaches with great interest. But there's another bunch of topics that I find very important for E4.

What is the future of RCP?

Here is a (non-complete) list of RCP-related topics that could be addressed with E4:

- Can we reduce the complexity?
 o Right now, after one week of training, a RCP newbie
   just touched the very basic things of RCP.
   This is one reason why many big industry companies have problems adopting RCP.
 o A less complex application model
   and a UI presentation model might help here,
   but clean, simple and concise Java APIs all over the place are also very important.

- Can we reduce the footprint?
 o Do bundles like ICU (4.3MB) have to be part of the RCP core?
 o Can we refactor the workbench bundle (3.7MB) and take optional things out of the RCP core?

- Can we focus on THE best practice of doing things?
 o In the current RCP implementation there's very often more than one way how to archive the same goal.
 o Can we integrate just the best practice into the core and provide an optional compatibility layer?
 o Example: ActionSets vs. menu contributions (+commands & handlers)

- Can (and should) we provide a more customizable UI for the desktop?
 o The ongoing discussions about a canvas based UI core are very interesting...
 o For RCP UI customization currently we have the Presentation API,
   custom SWT widgets, Equinox transformations etc.,
   But besides that, current RCP applications look similar to the Eclipse IDE.

- Should we integrate authentication/authorization better in the RCP core?
 o In the Equinox area there is some ongoing work to integrate these things
 o A standard user/role with UI support concept would be very helpful (see bug 201052)

- Should we integrate provisioning better into the RCP core?
 o Currently Equinox p2 is integrated into Eclipse 3.4M6, and I like the p2 approach.
 o But as of today, it is not so easy to reuse p2 in a domain specific RCP application
 o Some of the provisional p2 UIs could be part of the public API in the RCP update story

Best regards,

Kai