[news.eclipse.tools] Re: Opening a file in an editor

[david_springgay@xxxxxxx (David Springgay)]

Kushal,

As I'm the guy who developed IStorageEditorInput, IEditorInput, etc, I'll
answer this again.  

When a resource changes in the workspace a resource delta is fired to all
listeners.  The typical listeners will include builders (like the java
builder) and simple IResourceChangeListeners (like a content provider in
JFace).  The platform can only fire out deltas for resources which exist
(are managed) in the workspace and are modified through the standard API
on IResource, IFile, etc.  OS files which exist outside the workspace are
"unknown", so the platform is unable to detect and send out resource
deltas.  This makes it impossible to build those files when they change or
otherwise deal with modifications outside the workspace.

In reflection of this limitation within the platform core, the platform UI
only provides edit support for resources in the workspace (IResource,
etc).  Limited support for storage areas in general (OS files, data in a
repository, files across the net) is provided by the read only
capabilities of IStorageEditorInput.

I understand that you want to edit files outside the workbench.  In the
future additional work may be done to support it, but we don't support it.

I hope this clears things up.

Dave