[news.eclipse.platform.swt] Re: bundles vs. .project file

[Alex Blewitt <alex_blewitt@xxxxxxxxx>]

Bundles (and the OSGI manifest) are necessary when you're running in an OSGI environment, such as you get with Eclipse plugins. However, if you're just using Eclipse as a Java IDE, then it's really unlikely that it will bring you any benefit at all.

In order for Manifest.MF files to be useful (as OSGI bundles), you'll have to have them hosted in another OSGI-aware system. It's highly unlikely you've got that.

Lastly, Eclipse uses the .project to track dependencies between projects (and the corresponding entries in .classpath), so if you want Eclipse to have inter-project dependencies for compilation, you *have* to use the .project/.classpath dependencies.

Alex.