[News.eclipse.foundation] Re: What is the future of RCP?

[John Arthorne <eclipseng@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> To summarize it took me far too long to understand that RCP is part 
of Equinox.

It seems the messages are still a bit mixed, because RCP isn't part of 
Equinox. It seems the problem is using the code name "Equinox" on this 
main page where it doesn't seem to fit. I.e., the five listed pillars 
are "Enterprise, Embedded, Equinox, Application Frameworks, Language 
IDE".  Four of those categories are descriptive, and one of them is a 
project name that likely has no meaning for a newcomer. Perhaps the 
fifth pillar as listed on the main page should say "Runtimes" or 
"Equinox Runtimes".  Of course RCP is more of an application framework 
on top of the Equinox runtime, so it's not clear how it fits into the 
big picture.
--


Robert Möstl wrote:
> Hello,
>
> first it is to say that I'm very satisfied with the answers to my 
> question, thank you Boris, who pointed me in the right direction, and Ian.
>
> When the RCP link was replaced on eclipse.org in middle of March I did 
> half a day of research to get a glue what had happened. To summarize it 
> took me far too long to understand that RCP is part of Equinox. So a 
> little announcement on the top of the site would have been very helpful 
> to me. And this could be helpful for other potential developers too. I 
> just imagine I'm telling a friend about how great Eclipse RCP is. I 
> guess my friend wouldn't be very happy if he visits eclipse.org and 
> hardly can find information on RCP and desktop application development 
> in general.
>
> Secondly isn't it a little bit confusing if the welcome page of 
> eclipse.org says Eclipse is used for:
> - Enterprise Development -> "Ok, I understand"
> - Embedded + Device Development -> "Ok, I understand"
> - Equinox Portal (former RCP): "what the hell is Equinox?" (By the way: 
> wasn't it just an implementation of OSGi? Now Equinox seems to be more a 
> non-technical term)
> - ...
>
> Finally it is to say that in the current status of the website I don't 
> get it that Eclipse can be used for desktop application development too. 
> In my humble opinion this has to be changed.
>
> Kind regards,
> Robert
>
>
>
> Mike Milinkovich wrote:
> > "Robert Möstl" <robert.moestl@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message 
> > news:ftvaln$r13$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> > I am in agreement with what Ian and Boris have already said, but just 
> > wanted to reinforce one item.
> >
> > > But will eclipse be an application platform in the future too?
> >
> > This is the key question. And the answer is most emphatically *yes*. 
> > All that is happening is that the scope of Eclipse as an application 
> > integration platform is widening. We focused 100% on RCP when the 
> > projects were working on desktop application integration technologies. 
> > Now that we have projects working on server-side (Swordfish, 
> > EclipseLink, RAP) and device-side (eRCP) runtimes, the messaging is 
> > widening to accomodate that.
> >
> > Put another way, RCP is now part of the Eclipse runtime story, rather 
> > than being *the* Eclipse runtime story.
> >
> > We at the EMO always struggle with trying to deliver marketing 
> > messages that try to explain what is going on in the projects. Let's 
> > face it: we don't tell the projects what to do, so our marketing is 
> > largely post-facto. It is trying to explain where the projects have 
> > already headed. It's an interesting challenge. Especially since our 
> > marketing resources are so limited.
> >
> > Is this helpful? Do you feel we are on the right track, or do we need 
> > to reconsider our approach?