[News.eclipse.technology.packaging] Re: Strawman package proposal for Ja

[Urs Reupke <ureupke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Wayne,

while I can't comment on your other proposals due to a lack of 
experience in their given fields, this one made me wonder about its 
target audience.

From the name "Java Developer" I take it that the group you intend to 
address with this proposal is the same group that currently downloads 
the eclipse SDK, but has no need for RCP/Plug-In development capabilities.

This group currently has neither the Visual Editor nor Mylar available, 
and might well not need them. I believe that the packages should be kept 
as simple as possible, so maybe we should shrink this package to include 
only

* Platform
* JDT
* XML Editor, if deemed necessary.

If you intend this package to be a direct rival to the Netbeans IDE, 
including the Visual Editor might be necessary just to gain a little on 
The Project Formerly Known As Matisse (whatever they may style it these 
days).

In a more general vein, you remarked that the packages should only 
include the prerequisite plug-ins required by the main features. 
Following this thought might lead to some confusion down the road, 
because we would rip the prerequisite features apart. Also, the package 
specifications could become quite unwieldy if based on plug-ins, not 
features.
As such, I think that we should base the packages on feature dependencies.

And that's it for now
-Urs