[ews.eclipse.technology.desk] Some ideas...

[Robert Enyedi <renyedi@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Just like the founders of this project, I know that Java is lacking a 
lot of desktop integration features. For a while I've been developing an 
open-source file manager in Java and these are the main areas where I 
have to use native bindings:

- partition information - there's no way of obtaining basic partition 
information in Java: type, size, free space. The Eclipse Update Manager 
codebase contains such code 
(http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/org.eclipse.update.core.win32/src/) 
and I use something similar to it. It's not that hard, but it's still 
native code and should be available as an API. For example, any 
container/application server needs such an API for doing a safe deploy.

- file permissions/attributes - all you can do in Java is set a file's 
read-only attribute. There's no way of resetting it. And you can check 
if it's hidden, but no API for changes is provided. There should be a 
specialized API for dealing with a unified file permission model that 
covers mainly the permission models of win32 and Unix.

- shell context menu - while the first two areas are of general 
interest, the handling of the system shell's context menu is somewhat of 
limited use. I need it in my file manager 
(http://sourceforge.net/project/screenshots.php?group_id=35271&ssid=8601) 
and I also have some code already implemented (only for win32 and it 
works just partially): 
http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/jcommander/plugins/org.jcommander.systemshell.win32/src/. 
However, an API for the system shell and the contextual menu in 
particular might be useful also for other kind of applications that 
require tight desktop integration.

While trying to address these needs for my application, I directly 
experienced the two obvious difficulties in developing native bindings:
- design of a unified and platform independent API - requires knowledge 
of all the major platforms
- implementation of the APIs for each target platform - thorough 
knowledge of the specific APIs is needed and this is the hardest part

What I've found out as missing in Java for desktop integration is just a 
 small part of what other requirements might be.

Do you have a plan about the areas of desktop integration that the 
Eclipse Desktop project intends to address?

Regards,
Robert