A new hidden freature in the PDE editor

Only a few hours ago I reported bug 189102 on bugzilla because I couldn't get the Extension tab of the PDE editor to work.

Basically I wanted to add a sub-element to a decorators extension as shown in the figure on the left. But... there was no sub-elements to add in the pop-up menu.

I have seen that problem a couple of times after I have started to use first 3.3M7 and now 3.3RC1, and this time I had the time to report the problem...

Only a few minutes ago, Mike Pawlowski fra IBM, answered the bug with the following answer:

The decorators schema (/org.eclipse.ui/schema/decorators.exsd)
uses the common expression schema (/org.eclipse.ui/schema/commonExpression.exsd).

In the latter schema, the enablement's grammar is defined as follows:

<!--ELEMENT enablement (and | or | not | objectClass | objectState | pluginState | systemProperty)-->

As a result, the enablement element is only allowed one child. From your screenshot it appears it already has a child.

There was a new feature implemented in the Extensions section that populates the context menu with extension elements based on the corresponding extension point schema. This includes respecting multiplicity constraints.

Since, the enablement element already has one child, no other legal child elements are allowed to be added (feature is working as expected). Delete the child and the context menu will be populated again with a list of valid child elements from the grammar.

Let me know if this is indeed your problem.

And of cause he is right!

This is indeed a very good new feature. It will help solve a problem I have seen in the applications I have helped develop: the user of an extension point does not really adhere to the contract (the schema) and the extension reader fails...

The only down side: now everybody have to be more careful when defining extension points.

Time from when I reported the bug 'till the bug was marked as INVALID: 73 minutes. I wonder how many commercial systems that has that type of responding support.

A Danish Eclipse User Group: eclipse.dk

An Eclipse-only user group has seen the light of day in Denmark. The name of the new user group is eclipse.dk - but please note that the corresponding web site does not function yet.

The new user group - initiated in late April - has active participation from all segments of the Danish Eclipse Ecosystem:

• IBM and BEA represents the product providers
• The RCP Company represents the service providers
• Nordea and Ubiquitech represent the professional users
• DIKU, CBS, RUC and DTU represent the academic users
  

We have many hopes for the new user group. Most notably we hope that the new group can help counter the influence that Microsoft has on the software used on higher education. It would be a sad case, if we cannot get good software engineers with knowledge in Java and possibly Eclipse, just because they only know about .net and C#...

The user group has already invited people to the first after work meeting: 31. May we have gotten two senior engineers from Instantiations to talk about their products - especially the designer tools and the test tools. If you want to participate call Sachin Dhiman on +45 51 92 24 06.

The next major Eclipse technology

The Eclipse Universe includes a very large number of tools and technologies. This is - in one sense - one of the best testaments to the success of the platform. But it is also one of the most infuriating aspects of the platform, when you make a living as a Eclipse service provider.

As an Eclipse service provider, you are always expected to know more about the different Eclipse technologies than what you customers know. And you are expected to be able to give advise about which technologies your customers can/should/could use to solve specific problems.

If you provide training based on the Eclipse platform, some things are obvious. You must have training in RCP as this is the basis of everything else. And we have seen GEF and EMF both being used in many very diverse projects - both are now part of the must-know technologies of the Eclipse Universe and consequently you must have training for these technologies.

But then it becomes much more difficult. Which technology or technologies are next in line?

BIRT? Business Intelligence is a very hot term, and BIRT does support some very basic abilities in this regard, so...?

GMF? Being a combination of EMF and GEF, GMF seems a logical candidate.

Or is it EMFT, M2T, TPTP, ECF, RAP, Higgins or something else?

One can argue for any of these as the next hot technology. It is so difficult to figure out, which Eclipse technology that will be the next important thing, that we must have training for.