tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15932198532426578432024-03-14T00:18:18.918-05:00EclipsetacyA committer's take on issues related to Eclipse.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-82886077694394034202009-12-01T12:01:00.000-05:002009-12-01T12:01:22.461-05:00Eclipse: Empowering the Universal Platform Technical BriefingIBM has put together a technical briefing entitled <a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/techbriefings/details/eclipse.html">Eclipse: Empowering the Universal Platform</a> that provides an introduction to Eclipse - the platform, the foundation, and the ecosystem. This is a nice introduction if you're starting out with Eclipse or want to get a better sense of what's available in Eclipse land.<br />
<br />
For those who attended my session last week the slides are available from:<br />
<a href="http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/techbriefings/details/eclipse.html">http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/offers/techbriefings/details/eclipse.html</a>Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-45704230386060268772009-11-20T14:21:00.005-05:002009-11-20T14:32:55.659-05:00Eclipse RT Day TorontoYesterday was Eclipse RT Day Toronto at the IBM Toronto Lab. For those who missed it, there is quite a lot going on the runtime space. (A number of the presentation slides are available on the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/EclipseRT_Day#Toronto">Eclipse RT Day page</a>.) My interest is currently in server side equinox. I've first started playing with this technology about two years ago and my current product, Rational Insight, recently released v1.0, which includes a server side equinox based component. The runtimes are really coming along nicely and have been stable and usable for some time. For me the big takeaways from the day are:<br /><br />1. The required ancillary features, like filter support for server side equinox, security, and provisioning have now been or are currently being addressed.<br />2. Tool support is growing for Eclipse RT.<br /><br />This one day event was really great. The two tracks kept everyone together for most of the day, there was low overhead for me as this was in Toronto (and where I work no less), and there was only a single day commitment, which is much easier on my schedule than a multi-day conference. Thanks to everyone who came down from Ottawa and other places to present and participate. I hope to see more of these events in the future.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-77262868440773686072009-09-10T19:49:00.003-05:002009-09-10T19:54:04.183-05:00Watch Mike Milinkovich debate the merits of the EPLThe <a href="http://www.fosslc.org/">Free and Open Source Learning Centre</a> recently ran a debate about which open source license is best: BSD, EPL, or GPL. I think Mike does a great job of summarizing the merits of the EPL. Check out the video for yourself at:<br /><br /><a href="http://www.fosslc.org/drupal/node/523">http://www.fosslc.org/drupal/node/523</a>Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-58709611592985422012008-02-01T14:30:00.000-05:002008-02-01T14:33:05.615-05:00More WTP Books on the Way<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s200/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 194px; height: 194px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s200/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>My publisher just informed me that stock of Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java Web Applications is getting dangerously low. (OK, so I added in the dangerously part.) This is great news as it means the book is a hit and I think speaks volumes about the popularity of WTP.<br /><br />The second printing is taking place now and should make it to shelves shortly. My co-authors and I have made a number of corrections most notably fixing the two incorrect code examples identified on the <a href="http://eclipsewtp.org/errata.html">WTP book errata page</a>.<br /><br />If you haven't already picked up a copy take a look at the <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org">book's web site</a> or pick up your copy directly from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321396855?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">Amazon</a>.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-77415573050012885042007-11-06T13:25:00.000-05:002007-11-06T13:25:12.521-05:00Register for EclipseCon 2008, Get a Free Eclipse WTP Book<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 125px;" src="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/image125x125.gif" alt="EclipseCon 2008" border="0" /></a><a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/">EclipseCon 2008</a>, the Eclipse Foundation's annual conference, is being held March 17-20, in Santa Clara, CA.<br /><br />Register early and as a bonus the first 100 people to register will receive a free copy of my book <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">Eclipse Web Tools Platform</a>.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-20906399093872125032007-10-25T00:45:00.000-05:002007-10-24T23:49:19.811-05:00Up Next, Free Software and Open Source Symposium<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/images/Symposium-Header-2007_top.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 525px; height: 101px;" src="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/images/Symposium-Header-2007_top.jpg" alt="Free Software and Open Source Symposium" border="0" /></a><br />I meant to get this post out much earlier than the night before the event but I think it will still be useful as all of the symposium content is recorded and available online for free from the <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/">FSOSS site</a>. (You can check out <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2006/recordings/index.html">last year's talks</a> now, including my <a href="http://sparc.senecacollege.ca/pub/fsoss/2006/TrackD.R2168b.Lawrence.Mandel.and.Jeffrey.Liu.avi">presentation about Ajax toolkits</a>.)<br /><br />Up next for me is the <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/">Free Software and Open Source Symposium (FSOSS)</a> at Seneca College running from Oct. 26-27. This will be my third year at this event and the first year the event will span two days. This is another event I've found to have very high quality presentations and a lot of good people from various backgrounds. In fact FSOSS is sponsored by, among others, Mozilla, BMO Bank of Montreal, Novell, Seneca College, and Apple.<br /><br />Here's my agenda for this two day event:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Thursday</span><br />9-10 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=37">Usability Anonymous: A 12 Step Program for Better User Experiences</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I've really gotten into user experience and how I can improve it in my products. I'm interested to see what David and Jay's 12 step program is after reading book like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0672326140?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">The Inmates Are Running the Asylum</a> and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1893115941?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">User Interface Design for Programmers</a>.<br /></span><br />10-11 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=46">Facebook's Thrift: Scalable Cross-Language Development</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This is a talk about some of the technology that supports the Facebook platform. I really don't know anything about Facebook from a technical perspective and this is the first opportunity I've had to hear directly from the dev team.<br /></span><br />11-12 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=29">Product and User Experience Design in Open Communities</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Amazingly I've never seen Mike present. Although I'm interested in the topic I'm going to his talk to see if he's as funny in front of a room of people as he is in person. (My bet's on yes.)<br /></span><br />1-2 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=95">Welcome To The Jungle: A Field Guide To Enterprise Computing</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Read the abstract for this talk. It just seems like it's going to be fun.<br /></span><br />2-3 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=40">Open Commercial Developme<span style="font-size:100%;">nt</span></a><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This is the talk I'm giving with Jeff Liu. Our talks the last couple years have been on Open technologies (Eclipse WTP and Ajax toolkits) so this is a bit of a change for us.<br /></span></span><br />3-4 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=27">Keynote: Applying Open Source Concepts to Non-software Industries</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Friday</span><br />9-10 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=38">Accessible Rich Internet Applications</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This is real concern as RIAs break many of the existing solutions for accessibility. I'm currently building an RIA so I think this will be a useful talk.<br /></span><br />10-11 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=31">Shifting the Focus: OpenOffice.org 3.0</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">IBM recently announced that it will <a href="http://www.openoffice.org/press/ibm_press_release.html">collaborate on OpenOffice</a>. Think I'll check out what's new and upcoming.<br /></span><br />11-12 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=96">Open Source in the Telephony Market</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Asterisk is pretty cool. My brother-in-law uses it to power the telephone system for his small business (<a href="http://rentmagic.ca/">RentMagic</a>) and I've been meaning to set up a test box for a while to play with this Open Source telephony application.<br /></span><br />1-2 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=32">Community as A Core Competency: Microsoft and Open Source</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Although I've been disapointed by other MS talks at Open Source conferences this one again looks interesting and so I'm holding out hope.<br /></span><br />2-3 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=35">A Linux Desktop on Every PC</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Marcel is a great speaker. (I've seen him twice at this event.) I'm looking forward to what I'm sure will be an energetic talk.<br /></span><br />3-4 <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/2007/presentationDetails.php?presentationID=30">Keynote: Open Source Economics: Stakeholder Perspectives</a>Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-63430650154767649992007-10-23T10:40:00.000-05:002007-10-23T09:38:19.579-05:00Another Error Message for the Hall of FameI was trying to create a DVD with InterVideo WinDVD Creator V2 (which came bundled with my ThinkPad) this weekend when I was presented with an error dialog.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUftp4Hl9mINbkuXbfSBQVljNIUFPJjZqimp75_od4AVi0-0MgtFLQ9g9yMpvPFjrUoRobNxSCT-_ay48gVM8kVx2rEnb7t3YkdnBlGGots5RVtGMCoPQe-zrikSUvMMHxofAaguyNnU/s1600-h/someerror.gif"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIUftp4Hl9mINbkuXbfSBQVljNIUFPJjZqimp75_od4AVi0-0MgtFLQ9g9yMpvPFjrUoRobNxSCT-_ay48gVM8kVx2rEnb7t3YkdnBlGGots5RVtGMCoPQe-zrikSUvMMHxofAaguyNnU/s320/someerror.gif" alt="Can not complete authoring process due to some error." id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5124507514598459842" border="0" /></a>This immediately seemed to me like a candidate for the error message Hall of Fame. Not only does this error message contain no useful information but after failing the program seems to remove all clues as to what it had done so I can't even debug the problem myself.<br /><br />I'd like to think that due to the Open Source process (with committers elected due to their proven technical expertise) that Eclipse is immune from poor error messages. Unfortunately this isn't always true. However Eclipse and other Open Source software does have a great advantage from community review (many eyes). The community is a great help in locating poor error messages.<br /><br />One error message, which is partially my fault as I let it be propagated through the WSDL validator, was recently identified in a <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/newslists/news.eclipse.webtools/msg14956.html">WTP newsgroup posting</a> about the WS-I WSDL validator. The error message in question is:<br /><blockquote>"WS-I: A problem occurred while running the WS-I WSDL conformance check: org.eclipse.wst.wsi.internal.analyzer.WSIAnalyzerException. The WS-I Test Assertion Document(TAD) was not found or could not be processed. The WSDLAnalyzer was not able to validate the given WSDL file."</blockquote>I think there are a number of problems with this message.<br /><ol><li>The message identifies an internal exception. If the exception is one that a user should understand it should probably be part of an API.</li><li>The message refers to the WS-I Test Assertion Document (TAD) without any explanation of what this is or why this is affecting the end user. I think a link would be very helpful here.</li><li>The message doesn't give the user any suggestions how to resolve the problem.</li></ol>I've brought this up as I think it's a good reminder to do your best to think like your users when creating error messages. An easy way to do a quick dry run is to simply ask the person sitting next to you (either physically on online) whether they understand the message.<br /><br />Oh, and in case you're interested, I've opened <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=206845">bug 206845</a> for the WS-I error message above.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-43551310484624394262007-10-20T00:00:00.000-05:002007-10-19T19:39:50.781-05:00Find Lawrence at Cascon 2007, Oct. 22-25<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/images/Web-image.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; float: left; text-align: left; cursor: pointer; width: 399px; height: 189px;" src="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/images/Web-image.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'll be presenting and attending <a href="http://cas.ibm.com/cascon">Cascon</a> next week (Oct. 22-25) and thought I'd share where I'll be spending my time.<br /><br />Not familiar with Cascon? Cascon is IBM's annual <a href="http://cas.ibm.com/">Centre for Advanced Studies</a> CONference. I've been attending Cascon since 2003 (with the exception of 2005, when I was at OOPSLA) and every year it has had extremely high quality hands-on workshops and presentations covering a range of topics. (I've personally lead hands-on workshops covering XML, Web services, and RIA and Ajax.) And, it's free as in beer! (There is no registration fee.) This is a great opportunity for students to get out, meet some people in industry, and learn about some different technology. But, I digress.<br /><br />Here's my schedule:<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Monday</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">9-5</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/workshopsignup/displayWorkshop?PublicView=true&Slot=MONFULLDAY&Num=8">Hands-on: Introduction to Ajax Technologies</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I'll be leading this hands on workshop with Jen Hawkins, Aron Wallaker, and Jeffrey Liu.<br /><br /></span><span style="font-style: italic;">5-7</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/showcase/index.shtml#user">Technology Showcase: Enterprise Portfolio Management</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Come take a look at my current project building tools to facilitate Enterprise Portfolio Management.</span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br />Tuesday</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">8:30</span> Best Paper Awards</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I'll be awarding each of the best paper winners with a copy of my book <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">Eclipse Web Tools Platform</a>. (Haven't read it yet? <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321396855?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">Head on over to Amazon and pick one up</a>. Find me at Cascon and I'll be happy to sign it for you. :) )</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">10:15-10:45</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/papers/index.shtml">Paper: Runtime Monitoring of Web Service Conversations</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Looks like an interesting paper about ensuring the correct functioning of Web services.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">11-1</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/showcase/index.shtml#user">Technology Showcase: Enterprise Portfolio Management</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">Missed the Technology Showcase on Monday? It's open for the rest of the conference. I'll again be at the booth on Tuesday during lunch.</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1-5</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/workshopsignup/displayWorkshop?PublicView=true&Slot=TUEPM&Num=33">Hands-on: Learn about Adobe Flex</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I'll be attending this workshop. I think it should nicely complement the Ajax workshop I'll be presenting on Monday.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;">Wednesday</span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">10:45-11:15 </span><a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/papers/index.shtml#wednesday">Paper: An Audit Trail Service to Enhance Privacy Compliance in Federated Identity Management</a><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">This is a paper with possible use in Enterprise Portfolio Management.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">1-5</span> <a href="https://www-927.ibm.com/ibm/cas/cascon/workshopsignup/displayWorkshop?PublicView=true&Slot=WEDPM&Num=38">Hands-on: Business Process Modeling and Simulation: An SOA Adoption using WebSphere Business Modeler</a></span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">I don't know enough about BPM and think this should give me a kick start.</span><br /><br />Although Cascon will run on Thursday, Wednesday will be my last day as I'm scheduled to speak at the Seneca College <a href="http://fsoss.senecac.on.ca/">Free Software and Open Source Symposium</a> on Thursday. More about that event in my next post.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-12224271728584468642007-09-19T12:50:00.000-05:002007-09-19T11:50:57.163-05:00Eclipse and Apache Team Up for OSSummit Asia Conference<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmuU2OlCAq6KMZ_ZOhjFhMSg2dmlsAKVp14YdEbFz9bbCzizSbfWMUiOBOLdu_PM49jJdlSVfwNmpBIHyqg3QA-nIlUuaR8mMr2relszNBnzTD452Qq38F0OBd4Dt_PcH-ujzF2vTX_s/s1600-h/eclipselogo.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmuU2OlCAq6KMZ_ZOhjFhMSg2dmlsAKVp14YdEbFz9bbCzizSbfWMUiOBOLdu_PM49jJdlSVfwNmpBIHyqg3QA-nIlUuaR8mMr2relszNBnzTD452Qq38F0OBd4Dt_PcH-ujzF2vTX_s/s200/eclipselogo.gif" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5111958309662710866" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:konOWjp86bmMFM:http://incubator.apache.org/triplesoup/images/apache_feather.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 123px; height: 35px;" src="http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:konOWjp86bmMFM:http://incubator.apache.org/triplesoup/images/apache_feather.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br />Following on <a href="http://eclipsetacy.blogspot.com/2007/02/eclipse-reaches-out-to-apache.html">previous goodwill</a> built between the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org">Eclipse</a> and <a href="http://www.apache.org">Apache</a> communities the two Open Source foundations have decided to partner for the first time on the <a href="http://www.ossummit.com/">OSSummit Asia 2007</a> conference. As announced to Apache committers via the committers mailing list:<br /><blockquote>"The Apache Software Foundation and Eclipse Foundation are joining together for the first time at OSSummit ASIA 2007<br /><br />Combining 2 days of in-depth hands on trainings followed by a 3 day conference featuring over 60 presentations, Birds of a Feather gatherings to engage in throughout each day, interactive keynote panel, and Li Gong Chairman and CEO of Mozilla Online Ltd doing the featured keynote."</blockquote>This is a great step in acknowledging the growing ties between these two communities that now share interests, code, and committers.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-48143398618702736762007-09-10T23:13:00.000-05:002007-09-10T23:26:19.295-05:00Digg Eclipse Articles<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://digg.com/img/badges/180x35-digg-button.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px;" src="http://digg.com/img/badges/180x35-digg-button.png" alt="" border="0" /></a><br />Links to Digg, Slashdot and Del.icio.us help in the promotion articles and other Web content. Traditional news sites like <a href="http://www.globeandmail.com/">The Globe and Mail</a> and the <a href="http://www.thestar.com/">Toronto Star</a> (local references) now provide links to these sites from their articles. So where are these links on a site like Eclipse that supports global collaboration on software development? In this case it looks like Eclipse isn't an innovator or early adopter but rather is late to the game. I've opened <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=202856">bug 202856</a> to add these links to the Eclipse articles. There's a patch there so check it out and voice your opinion in the bug report.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-14299317781394920852007-06-01T12:30:00.000-05:002007-06-01T11:19:56.585-05:00Eclipse WTP Book Released!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s200/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s200/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'm very pleased to announce that the first WTP book in the Eclipse Series has been released. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java Web Applications</span> by Naci Dai, Lawrence Mandel and Arthur Ryman is now<br />available from retailers such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321396855?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780321396853&amp;amp;itm=1&lkid=J14951181&pubid=K118089&byo=1">Barnes & Noble</a>, and<a href="http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/item/books-978032139685/0321396855/Eclipse-Web-Tools-Platform?ref=Search+Books%3a+%27eclipse+web+tools+platform%27&sterm=eclipse+web+tools+platform+-+Books"> Chapters/Indigo</a>.<br /><br />See <a href="http://eclipsetacy.blogspot.com/2007/05/whats-baking-at-eclipse-series-new-wtp.html">my previous post</a> and visit the <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">book's web site</a> for more information including the table of contents and downloadable source code examples (licensed under the EPL).<br /><br /><a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">http://www.eclipsewtp.org</a>Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-25634124222249366842007-05-17T15:30:00.000-05:002007-05-17T14:25:11.351-05:00What's Baking at the Eclipse Series? The New WTP Book of Course.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s1600-h/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGYPmfzPl5qgrvWOR1EHChOlQyy31tvcvh_g-eq9wTSBcsYFmOQ8CRVw5bmuiQELyJR-mpTQ94z_PCWyUeby3eZyjXY0e863c-35Km54F4H290H260dd-OblLDUJ6L0gN_hmUBvVSNxTI/s200/eclipsewebtoolsplatformcover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5065245308472899650" border="0" /></a>Can you smell the new Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) book coming out of the oven? I can. After almost two years of writing, editing, reviewing, writing, editing, reviewing, ... the books are due at the publisher by the end of this week and are scheduled to hit shelves on May 25.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">The lowdown:</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(for those of you who don't want to read further)</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">What:</span> The first WTP book in the Eclipse Series covering Java Web application development with WTP<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">When:</span> On shelves May 25, 2007<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Who:</span> By <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/people/person.php?name=dai">Naci Dai</a>, <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/people/person.php?name=mandel">Lawrence Mandel</a>, and <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/people/person.php?name=ryman">Arthur Ryman</a></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-size:85%;">(Use <a href="mailto:feedback@eclipsewtp.org">feedback@eclipsewtp.org</a> to get in touch with the authors)</span></span><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Where:</span> <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">http://www.eclipsewtp.org</a><br /></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">Eclipse Web Tools Platform: Developing Java Web Applications</a> covers the end-to-end development of a Java Web application with WTP. This includes installation of WTP, setting up your workspace and project for individual and team development, architectural principles of Web applications, creating the presentation, data, and persistence tiers, exposing your data with Web services, and testing your application. The book introduces and explores many common Web technologies such as CSS, DTD, HTML, JavaScript, SOAP, UDDI, WSDL, WSIL, XML, XML Schema, and XSLT and Java specific technologies such as CMP, EJB, JDBC, JSP, MDB, and XDoclet. The book also covers extending WTP including creating a new server adapter, adding support for a new language, customizing the WSDL tools, and creating your own URI resolver.<br /><br />The book was written for WTP 1.5, but is equally applicable for the upcoming WTP 2.0 release. Most of the visible changes to the tools discussed in the book should be easy to identify.<br /><br />To support the book we've created a web site, <a href="http://www.eclipsewtp.org/">http://www.eclipsewtp.org</a>. The web site includes an overview of the book, the table of contents, a package containing all of the example code used in the book (all licensed under the EPL), links to purchase the book, and author bios. We've also set up an e-mail address for your feedback. Send any comments about the book or the web site to <a href="mailto:feedback@eclipsewtp.org">feedback@eclipsewtp.org</a>.<br /><br />If you're anxious to get your hands on the book you can pre-order it today from sites such as <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321396855?tag=eclipsetacy-20&camp=14573&creative=329585&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0321396855&adid=0PERX1N2T3Y0HNV2VZZV&">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?z=y&EAN=9780321396853&amp;itm=1&lkid=J14951181&pubid=K118089&byo=1">Barnes and Noble</a>, and <a href="http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/item/books-978032139685/0321396855/Eclipse-Web-Tools-Platform?ref=Search+Books%3a+%27eclipse+web+tools+platform%27&sterm=eclipse+web+tools+platform+-+Books">Chapters/Indigo</a>.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-7248877018333516782007-03-12T22:00:00.000-05:002007-03-12T21:02:15.365-05:00Book Review: Dealing with Difficult People<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjppUhTgjzJAEYTQSr9ElkLhv8XFmq7rDEDxs_a1mS0PSOlsEqYWULTRcQFKsNeTUrEL7IzN0WbFtVbhUe8plvCCG1V5KNTAkZBdZotiv80d0fuuJwtJBC0AelGUAzub49W19q0bcVadCw/s1600-h/dealingwithdifficultpeoplecover.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjppUhTgjzJAEYTQSr9ElkLhv8XFmq7rDEDxs_a1mS0PSOlsEqYWULTRcQFKsNeTUrEL7IzN0WbFtVbhUe8plvCCG1V5KNTAkZBdZotiv80d0fuuJwtJBC0AelGUAzub49W19q0bcVadCw/s200/dealingwithdifficultpeoplecover.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5041067675655769346" border="0" /></a>For those of us in technical roles, I think too often skill set becomes equated with technical skill set. The fact is non-technical or soft skill sets are beneficial to people in technical roles. Soft skills involve your ability to communicate with others via e-mail, the phone, and instant messaging but also via articles, books, conference presentations and blogs.<br /><br />The importance of working well with others is amplified in Open Source projects like <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a>. Eclipse projects tend to be developed by large, geographically dispersed teams. These teams are comprised of people with, among other things, very different backgrounds, cultures, expectations, and priorities. These differences are further highlighted by the fact that the people on the project come from many companies and organizations meaning management structure cannot be used to enforce project decisions.<br /><br />With that in mind I'd like to take a look at a book I just finished reading by Dr. Rick Brinkman and Dr. Rick Kirschner entitled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007146333X?ie=UTF8&tag=eclipsetacy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=007146333X">"Dealing with Difficult People: 24 Lessons for Bringing Out the Best in Everyone"</a>.<img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=eclipsetacy-20&l=as2&o=1&a=007146333X" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /><br />Let's get the details that may prevent you from looking at this book out of the way. The book is very short, weighing in at just under 100 small pages, and can easily be read in a single sitting. (I'm not a quick reader.) And, the book's cheap going for ~$10 on <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007146333X?ie=UTF8&tag=eclipsetacy-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;creative=9325&creativeASIN=007146333X">Amazon</a>. Now, on with my review.<br /><br />As you've likely guessed from the title, the book focuses on dealing with difficult people. These people show up at work but also in all facets of life.<br /><br />In order to deal with a problem you have to know what you're dealing with. In its coverage of difficult people the book starts with an quick overview of the ten most unwanted behaviours: the Tank, the Sniper, the Know-it-all, the Think-they-know-it-all, the Grenade, the Yes Person, the Maybe Person, the Nothing Person, the No Person, and the Whiner.<br /><br />With the question of "what" out of the way the book then moves on to the question of "why". Why is this person being difficult? According to the book, the motivation of a difficult person revolves around four intents. Understanding these four intents is key as once you understand the reason someone is being difficult you can work to resolve the problem in order to remedy the difficult behaviour. This part of the book should make it clear that difficult behaviour is a manifestation of another problem and once that problem is understood you can work to make the difficult person a productive member of your team.<br /><br />Empowered with an understanding of who you're dealing with and what motivates them, you are ready to attack the problem. The book then presents you with a deeper view of each type of behaviour and arms you with tactics to combat each type of difficult person.<br /><br />While the book focuses on identifying difficult behaviours in others I found a secondary benefit was the ability to look inwards and discover ways in which I can and have been difficult. It's not always easy to solicit negative feedback from peers and I think this book is a good tool for looking at yourself to discover some of your own negative behaviours.<br /><br />Technical people need soft skills along with technical skills. Soft skills are a key component to the success of Open Source projects like those hosted at Eclipse. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/007146333X?ie=UTF8&tag=eclipsetacy-20&linkCode=as2&amp;amp;amp;amp;camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=007146333X">"Dealing with Difficult People"</a> is not an in depth tour of the human psyche. It is a quick read that will open your eyes to the way both others and you behave and build upon your soft skills enabling further success in your projects.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-20401263064777575902007-02-13T00:56:00.000-05:002007-02-13T23:38:56.038-05:00Eclipse Reaches out to ApacheAs Bjorn and Ward <a href="http://eclipse-projects.blogspot.com/2007/02/unified-committer-status.html">announced on their blog</a>, Eclipse recently extended a sweet invitation to <a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> committers to attend <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/">EclipseCon</a>. The sweet part of the invitation is that Apache committers can attend the conference for the Eclipse committer price. (If you're an Apache committer simply go to the EclipseCon site and register as a committer.)<br /><br />As a committer for both Apache and Eclipse I was personally very happy to see Mike Milinkovich's invitation sent to the Apacahe committers mailing list that stated,<br /><blockquote>"As you may know, a number of Eclipse projects implement tools for Apache projects and in turn, many Apache projects are using Eclipse technology."</blockquote>This statement shouldn't surprise those working at either Apache or Eclipse but I think it serves as an official recognition of the growing synergy between two of the most prolific open source communities. Although these two communities do differ their interests continue to align through their various projects.<br /><br />In his invitation Mike also said,<br /><blockquote>"We really appreciate the support the Apache community has extend to Eclipse and we look forward to building closer relationships."</blockquote>I couldn't have put it any better. Bravo to the Eclipse foundation for making a real effort to bring these two great communities closer together.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-3366721115210263642006-12-23T00:11:00.000-05:002006-12-23T01:02:27.085-05:00To SVN or Not to SVN? That is the Question...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQB_maw2Mf9HTPYlTN_iJC0XSFDybGxoulv5_q_3lKxzzE6xpGCr0WJkZzEdS-zi4n8hlVbyjawa8ioJ4yWFSvsWBR8YWV_fFyHdQu8paTpDA7XEhKkGTui7YgIDIxzMfqT2EgC57YlY/s1600-h/cvsorsvn.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLQB_maw2Mf9HTPYlTN_iJC0XSFDybGxoulv5_q_3lKxzzE6xpGCr0WJkZzEdS-zi4n8hlVbyjawa8ioJ4yWFSvsWBR8YWV_fFyHdQu8paTpDA7XEhKkGTui7YgIDIxzMfqT2EgC57YlY/s200/cvsorsvn.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5011583364873526066" border="0" /></a>Last week <a href="http://eclipsewebmaster.blogspot.com/">Denis Roy</a>, the Eclipse webmaster, announced on the committers' mailing list that <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/eclipse.org-committers/msg00278.html">Eclipse has installed Subversion (SVN) and that Eclipse projects can make the switch from CVS to SVN if they choose</a>. This leads naturally to the question should your project make the switch and, if so, is now the right time?<br /><br />Before undertaking a project such as migrating to SVN it's a good idea to perform a cost/benefit analysis. So let's start with that.<br /><br />The following is my list of the key benefits of SVN (a more complete list is available from the <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">SVN project website</a>):<br /><ul><li>File history is maintained even when files are moved or renamed. This means when Joe, a refactoring whiz, takes a cut at your code you'll still be able to view your comments to give you an idea of what's what. As anyone who's moved a file in CVS knows, when a file is moved in CVS its history is left behind and it's difficult if not impossible to locate later. </li><li>Commits are atomic. This means a commit only succeeds if the entire commit succeeds. (CVS has a nasty habit of having part of large commits succeed.) It also means revision numbers and comments are applied uniformly across all of the resources that were committed. So the next time you do a large commit that fails in the middle you won't have to sync and manually figure out what still needs to be committed.<br /></li><li>Branching and tagging take a constant amount of time. This can make a huge difference when branching or tagging a large project and means you can continue to work instead of waiting for the operation to complete and possibly getting distracted by the latest argument on <a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a>.<br /></li></ul> And here are some of the costs of migrating from CVS to SVN:<br /><ul><li>Someone will have to migrate your existing CVS repository to SVN. Although Denis has offered to help with the migration this will still require Egon, one of your project's developers and a member of the release engineering team, to spend time on migration, time he would otherwise have spent on activities that will affect the project deliverable like fixing medium and low priority bugs.<br /></li><li>Your project's developers will need to learn SVN if they're not already familiar with it. This may not seem like a big deal as SVN is very similar to CVS in many respects but it will take a non-zero amount of time, especially when installing (someone's bound to run into problems) and learning to use the tools (which are not the same as those of CVS), and again takes away Egon and other developers' time to fix those bugs.<br /></li><li>Furthermore, the current SVN tools for Eclipse are not available from Eclipse but from Tigris through the <a href="http://subclipse.tigris.org/">Subclipse project</a>. Some employers have strict policies on using third party tools and Daina, a developer working on the 'cuddly' feature, may need to seek approval from her employer to use the available SVN tools. (There is currently a proposal for an <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/proposals/svn/">SVN team provider project</a> but that has not yet been approved.) This means Daina won't be able to contribute changes because she can't use these tools until they've been approved by her employer.<br /></li></ul>OK. So there are some real benefits, although my experience with SVN is that I didn't see these benefits on a day-to-day basis, and there are some costs, the size of which will depend on your specific development team but will always be non-zero for existing projects.<br /><br />Let's take a look at one other aspect of this migration project. I've been reading <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.org/">Joel Spolsky's</a> book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FJoel-Software-Occasionally-Developers-Designers%2Fdp%2F1590593898%2Fsr%3D8-1%2Fqid%3D1166849254%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks&tag=eclipsetacy-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325">Joel on Software</a> so let's take a lesson from Joel and look at this change from a consumer (that's Eclipse user or adopter) perspective instead of a developer perspective. What will your consumers gain from the switch from CVS to SVN?<br /><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=eclipsetacy-20&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;l=ur2&o=1" alt="" style="border: medium none ! important; margin: 0px ! important;" border="0" height="1" width="1" /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:130%;">Nothing!</span><br /></div><br />This switch will not reduce the development time, add more functionality, fix bugs, or improve the testing of your project.<br /><br />So, to me this is now a question with a simple answer. No. It's not worth the time to make the switch from CVS to SVN now, in the middle of your development cycle, as this switch will provide very little benefit to your project. Also, this switch will not benefit your consumers who, in the long run, will determine whether or not your project is successful.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Are you saying no Eclipse project should ever switch from CVS to SVN?<br /><br /></span>No. I don't want to suggest that all the Eclipse projects should stay with CVS forever. As I listed above, there are benefits for developers in using SVN instead of CVS. These benefits do have an initial cost that I don't think is worth paying in the middle of a development cycle, given that there is so much more important development work to do, but may be worth paying at the beginning of a development cycle. Making the change at the beginning of the cycle will allow your team to respond to problems early and should mitigate schedule slips later on in the cycle when you have less flexibility. Also, if and when the SVN team provider project is approved and produces tools that come with Eclipse this will remove the third cost listed above. With this in mind, if your project does want to make the switch I'd suggest holding off on it until after Europa (the next Eclipse release train scheduled for June) or whenever your next major release happens to be.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1593219853242657843.post-77279006138211777962006-12-15T16:46:00.000-05:002006-12-18T16:32:35.928-05:00Defining the Eclipse Brand<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzZbZwj5xb0QljgV1KShh7hUQQBkMczOGUINnbL6bVHO96vSImP4VYMbKVjbzlJ3OL1HjDYiR4MVQ5JBtJ8p3kWainanLLzCDJsLiFx8Rdg-a_WAPC6E4zKXOKisY85lSO7XcofZH4mc/s1600-h/eclipsebrand.png"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBzZbZwj5xb0QljgV1KShh7hUQQBkMczOGUINnbL6bVHO96vSImP4VYMbKVjbzlJ3OL1HjDYiR4MVQ5JBtJ8p3kWainanLLzCDJsLiFx8Rdg-a_WAPC6E4zKXOKisY85lSO7XcofZH4mc/s200/eclipsebrand.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5008873591689375234" border="0" /></a>Over the last few years <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse</a> has experienced more than significant growth and has expanded well beyond its, what seems now to be modest, Java IDE roots. Eclipse now hosts 10 top level projects that contain 90 (if I counted correctly) combined subprojects with 11 project proposals currently sitting in the pipeline. The addition of each new project has broadened Eclipse's scope taking Eclipse in a new direction. The Eclipse community is thriving. Many great projects are being produced. But has the Eclipse brand, that is the name "Eclipse" and what it represents, grown along with Eclipse itself?<br /><br />Take a moment now to answer this question yourself. Sit back, relax, and think about Eclipse. What's was your first thought? Was it Eclipse the Java IDE (aka <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/jdt">JDT</a>), <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/swt">SWT</a>, or <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/rcp">RCP</a>? How about<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/ercp"> eRCP</a> or <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp">DSDP</a>? <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/webtools">WTP</a>, <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/datatools">DTP,</a> <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/emf">EMF</a>/<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/">Modeling</a>? Perhaps <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/birt">BIRT</a>, <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/stp">SOA</a>, or the ever popular <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/mylar">Mylar</a>? Or did you think of the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/foundation/">Eclipse foundation</a>?<br /><br />My answer to this question continues to be Java IDE, SWT and RCP. This despite the fact that I'm a WTP committer and previously worked on the now graduated <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/wsvt/">WSVT</a> project. Comments such as <a href="http://overholt.ca/wp/?p=75#comments">this one</a> (by mmm, try to ignore the negative aspect of the comment) show that I'm not the only one with this Eclipse brand baked into my head.<br /><br />This type of brand problem isn't a new one and isn't one that's going to end with Eclipse. Let's take a look at two other projects, one that has already experienced this problem and one that looks poised to experience it as it begins to grow.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> started as the Apache HTTP server and I'm convinced that many people outside of the Apache community still think HTTP server when you say Apache. Of course today Apache is one of the largest open source projects in the world with numerous influential and ubiquitous projects such as <a href="http://ant.apache.org/">Ant</a>, <a href="http://maven.apache.org/">Maven</a>, <a href="http://struts.apache.org/">Struts</a>, <a href="http://tomcat.apache.org/">Tomcat</a> and <a href="http://xerces.apache.org/">Xerces</a>. (I'd say that <a href="http://incubator.apache.org/woden">Woden</a>, the Apache project I work on, has not been adopted quite universally yet.) And let's not forget <a href="http://harmony.apache.org/">Harmony</a>, the Apache implementation of Java, which although not complete has already garnered much attention. Apache has experienced the same brand problem as Eclipse and it looks to me like this project has (perhaps unofficially) adopted a wait it out strategy assuming that one day people will get that Apache is more than the HTTP server. At present I think that the Apache brand has made some progress but it's difficult for me to gauge how much progress being part of the community.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.dojotoolkit.org/">Dojo</a> is a fairly new project that started out, like Apache and Eclipse, with one key project: The Dojo Ajax Toolkit. Many people have heard of Dojo but I think most don't know that Dojo is also a <a href="http://dojotoolkit.org/foundation/">foundation</a> (like Apache and Eclipse) and Dojo currently hosts two subprojects: <a href="http://openrecord.org/">OpenRecord</a> and <a href="http://cometd.com/">Cometd</a>. Dojo hasn't yet hit that critical point when rapid project growth begins but I think they're positioned well in the Ajax space, have the backing to survive the Ajax toolkit wars (I just don't see how two years from now we'll still have 100+ Ajax toolkits available), and therefore have the potential to grow their project base and scope. I don't think the Dojo Foundation has given much thought to the topic of the Dojo brand at this point but it will be interesting to watch and see how it tackles this in the future.<br /><br />Looking at these two examples I don't think we, as the Eclipse community, have much strategy we can borrow. I think there is a lesson for new open source projects and that is building the brand of your open source organization on the name of its marquee project has shown that it can lead to confusion with respect to the other projects your organization hosts. I don't see a good solution for this as when forming an organization you want to cache in on the name recognition already in place. This lesson, however, seems to me like something that can be filed under good to know when forming an open source organization.<br /><br />So what can we, the Eclipse community do to grow the Eclipse brand? I think we need to increase cooperation among the various Eclipse projects to create value add of using multiple projects together - something I don't think we're doing a very good job of today. In this way, when people think of Eclipse they won't just think of one project because they won't use just one project. They'll buy into the benefits of using WTP, DTP, ATF, Dali, and TPTP together. They'll explore the update site to discover other projects that will enhance their current tools. And once they see all of the projects as a single Eclipse offering they'll get Eclipse and the brand will grow.Lawrence Mandelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10420435504140055673noreply@blogger.com3