[news.eclipse.tools] Re: Call for screenshots

["Bob Foster" <bob@xxxxxxxxxx>]

"Renaud Waldura" <renaud+eclipse@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:akbe14$5ra$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > it didn't even have a "File, Open" option on its menus. EVERYTHING
> > has to be in some kind of project, and you couldn't even pick
> > or choose files in a directory, it would import EVERY file
> > in a directory."
> >
> > Lots of people can't get past Eclipse's inflexible use of the file
system.
>
> Allow me to re-phrase that. Lots of people have a hard time with a tool
that
> implements better practices than theirs. They're attached to their ways
> (which they can hardly be blamed for) and it prompts them to turn down,
and
> complain about, the opportunity to improve.

I phrased it right the first time. People are quick to accept improvements,
slow to accept restrictions.

> Going through the bug-tracking system I've found many change requests
that,
> if they were to all get implemented, would turn Eclipse into a
"traditional"
> text-based IDE. People complain about the lack of File/Open, the lack of a
> Compile button, the incremental compilation, etc. Basically almost
> everything that makes Eclipse Eclipse, because it's different than what
> they're used to.

You seem to think that the appeal of Eclipse arises from the things it
doesn't have. I don't think so.

(And BTW, Eclipse doesn't have incremental compilation.)

> Let's face it: Eclipse (the JDT) implements a specific programming
> "style" -- inherited from Smalltalk -- that feels new and alien to most
> people coming from a static language background. It takes an open mind to
> recognize that the programming style made possible by Eclipse is more
> productive. Those that don't see this complain about how the tool doesn't
> let them propagate their outdated habits.

Java is a going concern and Smalltalk is a historical note, so it is the
Smalltalk model that is "outdated". ;-}

> The current Eclipse release certainely has room for improvement, but I
hope
> OTI will not dilute the broth just to please a crowd who doesn't "get it".

I hope OTI continues to listen to their customers. The further it evolves
toward the flexible, file-based model on which Java is based, that is at the
heart of Unix and, really, the entire open-source movement, the more it will
please them.

Bob

> --Renaud
>
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