| Re: [platform-ui-dev] Clarifying activities in 3.0 |
Having read the recently updated Activities and Contexts documents and the numerous entries in this mailing list, I have some questions and comments.
1. Regarding the intent for the product manager to define activities, does that not assume that the product is more/less static and won't be enrichened with other features perhaps from other providers? For example, if I add some spiffy modeling tool feature to the eclipse platform shouldn't the owner of that feature be encouraged to define activities (and categories) relevant to that feature (this is identical to the earlier question on JDT and PDE). In the eclipse world the client's product is often the aggregate of features from mulitiple providers. Another variant is the case when product consumes the function of another and adds more stuff (the IBM WebSphere Studio Russian doll model).
2. How do I filter out subsets of function? Imagine that I want to simplify the JDT for Java students (I encounter this all the time when I visit universities incorporating Eclipse into their curriculum). I want a category called "Java Student" and I want a simplified perspective and a simplified set of actions (incidentally, can I filter programmatically created actions that were not created through an extension point. They are not "identifiable".) . It is not clear how I might define a pattern that subtracts function or create a pattern with very specific function (I assume it has something to do with the local identifier but the syntax and overall construction is not understood). I am sure this can be done I just don't understand some of the syntatical details.
3. It was stated that Context definitions can be filtered by activity. How is that done? XML or Java API or both? The mailing list also indicates that this may no longer be true so perhaps the question is not relevant anymore.
4. I share the comment by Ed Burnette as I am in a similar role of trying to explain this stuff to others.
Jim