[news.eclipse.newcomer] Re: RCP or IDE?

[J Michael Dean <mdean77@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you go to Eclipse/preferences there is a tab for capabilities - it will
allow you to at least get rid of the Team related items.  But I think it is
always a tradeoff.  I started out with an application idea and thought I
would use the IDE, and later switched to the RCP approach, partly because
McAffer and Lemiuex's book motivated me to try again.  But my application
does not need the vast majority of Eclipse.

I looked again at what you listed, however, and if all you need are
resources, help, and search, these are not major portions (i.e. You don't
need jdt, emf, etc.)  It is certainly approachable with RCP.  I highly
recommend the book I mentioned above - it is the difference between
stumbling around for months and making progress.


On 8/2/06 11:30 PM, in article
8b434ba86afd630bb99c62d44b9728d6$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "ruthie"
<ruthie@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Thanks for your reply.
> But, is it <<possible>> at all to remove functionality off the IDE?
> (specifically off the menus) I found no references on this subject.
> 
>> If you are going to use much of the IDE functions in Eclipse (it sounds like
>> you are building a devleopment environment) then I see little point in using
>> the RCP approach.  Why worry about the user opening some default views or
>> installing new plugins?  You can write your own perspective, and most users
>> will just use it.
> 
>> The RCP approach means you have to build everything - it is an excellent
>> environment, but the full Eclipse system brings a lot to the table without
>> any work.
> 
>> Just an opinion, obviously.
> 
> 
>> On 8/2/06 5:08 AM, in article
>> 8f444a6b44bb5e4d835eabf3d8996875$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, "ruthie"
>> <ruthie@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
>>> Hello.
>>> I need some some help getting started with the eclipse environment.
>>> I intend to write an Eclipse front end for a set of verification tools. It
>>> will include a perl editor and some "active" views of the underlying model
>>> (backend). The main task of the the end users will be to model a hardware
>>> component's  structure and behavior.
>>> 
>>> First I want to decide whether to use the IDE framework or the RCP subset.
>>> On one hand, I will need most of the standard IDE plugins (resources,
>>> help, search...). On the other hand, I will not need <all> the IDE plugins
>>> (team support, update manager). I also want to control the menus so I can
>>> prevent the user from performing some actions like opening some of the
>>> default views, or even install their own plugins.
>>> 
>>> My questions are:
>>> - Can anyone point me to concepts I should look up in the documentation to
>>> understand the control I have over the RCP and the IDE?
>>> - What might be the overhead (if any) of starting off with an RCP and
>>> later converting it to an IDE?
>>> 
>>> Thanks for your time,
>>> ruthie
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>