[news.eclipse.platform.rcp] Re: RCP deployment - JWS and/or Update?

[Alex Blewitt <alex_blewitt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Depends if you need help or not, and if you're on 3.2 or waiting for 3.3. The help issue is hopefully fixed in 3.3, but if you're planning on targeting 3.2 and need help, then you can't use JWS.

Update works, and doesn't need signed Jars. JWS works too, but needs signed Jars to use native code. JWS is probably easier to use than the Update site at first, but the Update sites are more flexible/configurable. Debugging with JWS is also a nightmare; sometimes, you can have an app that works but fails dismally when it comes to downloads and you have no idea why. (To be fair, that's usually a problem with the feature, which means it wouldn't work as a standalone app either; but there's at least more chance of debugging what the problem is in that situation.)

One thing that JWS has; you can 'force' people to use the same version of your app. However, because of the way that JWS works, it's also slower to start up than a local version, and doesn't scale as well; JWS has to iterate through all the Jars and extract manifests each time when the app starts, so in effect, it's equivalent to -clean and starting all bundles. Not a biggie if you've only got a small app, but I wouldn't want to start Eclipse JDT that way.

Alex.