Eclipse in Swing
Dave has this summary and thoughts:
An IBM-backed Java tools initiative could be yanked back into Sun Microsystems Inc's sphere of influence, to heal a potential community rift, through efforts lead by Oracle Corp, writes Gavin Clarke [The Register].
Despite the ridiculous sounding introduction, the article in fairly interesting. As I have mentioned before, Oracle is pushing for a standard IDE plugin-API so that Eclipse does not become the universal standard tools platform. However, this doesn't line up with that effort:
"[Members] want to drag Eclipse back in-line with Sun... SWT versus Swing has put some tension in the organization." [Ted Farrel, Oracle]
He can't be suggesting that IBM rewrite Eclipse using Swing, that would be crazy, so he must be suggesting that SWT becomes part of Java
I thought the same thing when I read this stuff... What is Oracle, et. al thinking?
Personally, I'd love to see Eclipse implemented using Swing. The architecture must be open enough to allow plugging in what-ever UI api that you want, right? Why not have the bottom layer be Swing and see how it performs. If Sun really believes in their code, then it'll rock and be fast. If not, we'll all realize that calling local GUI libraries is The Right Thing To Do and get on with our lives.
It's amazing the momentum that Eclipse has now though - Java developers have been waiting for years for a decent IDE like this. I joined my new job and the first thing we started talking about was Eclipse. Awesome.
-Russ