[news.eclipse.technology.epf] Re: Building Composer on alternative platf

[Eric Rizzo <eclipse-news@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

David Allen wrote:
> Any guidance on where to start if I want to look at building Composer 
> for alternative platforms (OS X)?
>
> I can use it through virtualization, but thought I might get some idea 
> of the effort to support a native build - even if it is just an 
> occasional/one-off process.

One problem you'll probably run into is that the RichText component is 
not supported on OS X. I'm not sure how gracefully Composer will handle 
that, but the RichText feature won't even install or load unless the 
platform is Win or Linux. There have been reports that is sort-of works, 
even though it is not supported; see https://bugs.eclipse.org/209373#c8 
and https://bugs.eclipse.org/209373#c13

For our product that depends on the RichText feature, I've made it an 
optional dependency and wrapped our usage of it in code that falls back 
to a plain Text widget when the RichText bundle isn't loaded. Perhaps 
you could do something similar to the Composer code (if it isn't already 
doing something like that).

Hope this helps,
Eric