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5 :     <title>The Equinox Project - Alternate runtimes</title>
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14 :     <table BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=5 CELLPADDING=2 WIDTH="100%" >
15 :     <tr>
16 :     <td ALIGN=left width="60%">
17 :     <p><font class=indextop> equinox</font><br>
18 :     <font class=indexsub> alternate runtimes</font> </p>
19 :     </td>
20 :     <td WIDTH="40%">&nbsp; </td>
21 :     </tr>
22 :     </table>
23 :    
24 :    
25 :     <p>Eclipse currently uses a home-grown runtime model. That is, the runtime model/mechanism
26 :     was designed and implemented specifically for Eclipse. This is good in that
27 :     it has been highly optimized and tailored. It is less than optimal in that there
28 :     are many issues which are complicated and having a unique runtime mechanism
29 :     does not allow us to reuse the work done in other areas (e.g., OSGi, Avalon,
30 :     JMX, ...). In particular we are looking for a runtime that has a strong specification,
31 :     a good component model, supports dynamic behaviour, and is reasonably similar
32 :     to that of Eclipse.</p>
33 :     <p>This last point bears some discussion. While we would like to start with a
34 :     clean slate and adopt/design a runtime which satisfies everyone's wish list,
35 :     pragmatically, it must still be possible to run old plug-ins on the new runtime
36 :     with confidence. That is, the new runtime cannot be so completely different
37 :     so as to make this difficult/totally inefficient/impossible.</p>
38 :     <p>Our attention has focussed on <a href="http://www.osgi.org">OSGi</a> and we
39 :     have implemented a plug-compatible runtime for Eclipse based on the OSGi specification.
40 :     Consult the resources below for more information.</p>
41 :     <table border=0 cellspacing=5 cellpadding=2 width="100%" >
42 :     <tr>
43 :     <td align=LEFT valign=TOP colspan="2" bgcolor="#0080C0"><b><font color="#FFFFFF">
44 :     OSGi Runtime Resources</font></b></td>
45 :     </tr>
46 :     <tr>
47 :     <td align=RIGHT width="16" valign=TOP><img src="http://eclipse.org/images/Adarrow.gif" width="16" height="16" border="0"></td>
48 :     <td><a href="http://www.osgi.org" target="_top"><b>OSGi</b></a><br>
49 :     The base specification and all you need to know about the organization.</td>
50 :     </tr>
51 :     <tr>
52 :     <td align=RIGHT width="16" valign=TOP><img src="http://eclipse.org/images/Adarrow.gif" width="16" height="16" border="0"></td>
53 :     <td><a href="architecture.html" target="_top"><b>Architecture</b></a><br>
54 :     A description of the new runtime which consists of OSGi, a set of Eclipse-specific
55 :     facilities and an Eclipse compatibility layer.</td>
56 :     </tr>
57 :     <tr>
58 :     <td align=RIGHT width="16" valign=TOP><img src="http://eclipse.org/images/Adarrow.gif" width="16" height="16" border="0"></td>
59 :     <td><a href="howto.html" target="_top"><b>Running the runtime</b></a><br>
60 :     How to use the new runtime.</td>
61 :     </tr>
62 :     <tr>
63 :     <td align=RIGHT width="16" valign=TOP><img src="http://eclipse.org/images/Adarrow.gif" width="16" height="16" border="0"></td>
64 :     <td><a href="adoption.html" target="_top"><b>Adoption Guide</b></a><br>
65 :     Details of how to update your plug-ins to take advantage of the new runtime.</td>
66 :     </tr>
67 :     <tr>
68 :     <td align=RIGHT width="16" valign=TOP><img src="http://eclipse.org/images/Adarrow.gif" width="16" height="16" border="0"></td>
69 :     <td><a href="migration.html" target="_top"><b>Migration Guide</b></a><br>
70 :     Details of any API changes and programming style changes relative to standard
71 :     Eclipse. </td>
72 :     </tr>
73 :     </table>
74 :     <p>&nbsp;</p>
75 :     </body>
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