[news.eclipse.platform.swt] Naming the Eclipse Application Framework

["David J. Orme" <daveo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Standalone applications can be built on several levels of Eclipse 
technology.  A common current configuration is to build an application 
using SWT+JFace, but not including the plugin framework or the 
viewer/editor framework.  As Eclipse evolves, it would not be suprising 
if even more Eclipse technologies become used in standalone applications 
in a way similar to JFace.

However, there is currently no commonly-understood term describing 
standalone applications that are built using more than SWT but using 
less than the entire Eclipse platform.  Consequently, many people have 
begun calling these applications "SWT applications" because SWT is the 
most recognizable ingredient in these applications.  This has resulted 
in confusion about where to post messages in the newsgroups for people 
who are building applications using SWT+JFace (for example).  These 
really aren't eclipse.platform applications.  Neither are they SWT 
applications.

The current solution has been to observe that JFace is currently 
distributed as a part of the Eclipse platform (Platform/UI); 
consequently all JFace questions are being directed to e.platform.  This 
is a good intermediate solution, but if more and more people build 
standalone applications based on something less than the Eclipse 
platform, but something more than just SWT, this confusion is likely to 
increase, not decrease.  This will especially be true if people keep 
calling these applications "SWT applications" after their most 
recognizable ingredient.

Therefore, I propose that the first step to solving this problem is to 
come up with a name describing the set of technologies (SWT, JFace, 
etc.) that together make up The Eclipse Application Framework, but don't 
also include both the plugin manager and the viewer/editor framework. 
By extension, this will give us a term to describe the applications 
built using these technologies.

The result will be that we will be able to more precisely describe what 
we are talking about when we describe an application built using Eclipse 
technologies.  This will also head off the confusion caused by people 
calling Eclipse Application Framework programs SWT programs and 
consequently posting JFace questions in the SWT newsgroup.

The best name I've thought of so far is Eclipse Application Framework 
(EAF); certainly somebody else can do better... :-)

Thoughts?


Dave
--
Dave Orme
Advanced Systems Concepts
http://www.swtworkbench.com