Your first Application based on Eclipse - FAQ

The Eclipse Platform is a mature and powerful framework for building tools and applications . The modular architecture and hundreds of open source frameworks available for use can significantly reduce the cost of an implementation project. However, Eclipse is also known to add new and sometimes complex concepts to the standard Java world, which might not be known from the start. This can lead to some frustration, non-optimal architectural decisions and therefore some unnecessary additional effort.
From our experience in various Eclipse-based projects, we observe a number of frequently recurring questions and issues. Some examples for these questions are:

- What are OSGi, bundles and features?
- Should we use Eclipse 3.x vs e4?
- How should we split and configure bundles?
- Why and how to use a target platform?
- Which OSGi features are important for our project?
- How can we set up a build?
- Which additional technologies to use?

In this talk, we will highlight the most important issues to consider and pitfalls to avoid. 30 minutes are certainly not enough to cover all these critical issues in detail, our goal is to give an overview of the frequently asked questions and create an awareness for the most common issues. We will provide some blueprint solutions, guidelines, and initial pointers for where to get more information and how to address them in detail.

Jonas Helming