[platform-core-dev] Use of Eclipse plugin framework in pure Java applica

["Martin Buechi" <Martin.Buechi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All,

I would like to use the Eclipse plugin framework to deploy pure Java
applications. I work on a set of closely related pure Java applications,
both non-GUI (standalone and MBeans) and Swing-based GUI (with WebStart and
InstallAnywhere installers), that I would like to build as a collection of
components. Since I really like the Eclipse plugin architecture, I would
like to use it as my component architecture. However, I do not want to use
any non-Java Eclipse code, SWT, or the main eclipse.exe.

Has anybody done this? 

Are there any dependencies in the base plugin framework on native platform
code, e.g., org.eclipse.core.resources.*, that would make it impossible to
reuse the implementation of the framework in a pure Java context?

The plugins that I believe to be required for this, namely
org.apache.xerces, org.eclipse.core.runtime, and org.eclipse.core.boot,
contain a number of internal packages. Does anyone know how safe it is to
build on these, given that there are no guarantees that they will be around
in the next version?

In order to ship an application using WebStart, all content must be in jars.
I understand that putting plugin.properties and plugin.xml into a jar and
breaking the directory structure, e.g., a single directory containing all
jars requires some change to the plugin framework. Are there any fundamental
issues with the current implementation that would make these changes very
difficult?

I am considering a switch to Eclipse/SWT for my IDE-like GUI application in
the future. One feature that would be very interesting to have there would
be the ability to load plugins that I am developing directly into the host
workbench rather than a separate run-time workbench. Are there any plans to
support this or are there fundamental reasons (e.g., unresolvable reloading
issues) that this will never be done?

The other plugin architecture that I am evaluating is NetBeans. I have found
a number of comparisons of Eclipse with JDT against the NetBeans IDE, but no
comparisons of the two plugin architectures. Has anybody written such a
comparison?

Are there any other similar plugin architectures I should be looking at?
(EJB, MBeans, JavaBeans, JEdit plugins don't fit my requirements.)

Last but not least, is my reading of the Eclipse license correct in the
sense that I am allowed to do this and ship my product including the,
possibly modified Eclipse framework classes, as a commercial product?

Regards,

Martin