[TriLUG] eclipse

[prhodes at vdsinc.com]

> So, no discussion yet on IBM's eclipse project?

> Does it really impact the open source community or is it just marketing
hype
> for IBM?

To be honest, Chris, I'm not sure exactly what there is to discuss.  I read
the IBM press release, and I really don't see anything new in there.  The
Eclipse project itself isn't new, I'm not sure how long it's been around,
but it's not like they just created this yesterday.  And AFAIK, the Eclipse
IDE has always been open-source, with IBM building a branded version, and
shipping it under the Websphere Studio Workbench banner.  In this respect,
it seems similiar to the Mozilla project, where the open source
organization ( mozilla / eclipse ) builds the free / open-source product
and ( Netscape / IBM ) builds a "branded" version to sell.

Anyway, I've played with Websphere Studio Workbench, and I like it a lot.
I've heard that this platform is where IBM is going, in terms of replacing
VisualAge.  And I think it's a major improvement.  I like the fact that you
can "plug-in" many different environments, and have one IDE for C++, Java,
VoiceXML, Rexx, Ada, Smalltalk, Perl, Lisp, COBOL, Pascal, Fortran, JSP,
PHP, SQL, Algol-68, Simula, SNOBOL, Befunge, or whatever....  And as
compared to VisualAge for Java, I like the Eclipse stuff a lot better
because it's more file based. Oh, and it has built in support for accessing
a CVS repository.

The only thing that appeared to be missing, last time I used Websphere
Studio Workbench, was any kind of visual composition tool for doing GUI
design, and visual Javabean stuff.  That was a beta though, and I'm
assuming that stuff will be in an upcoming release, especially since this
product is supposedly replacing VA for Java, eventually.  ( I've heard that
Visual for Java 4.0 is the last release of the VA for Java product line ).


Anyway, my take on the press release is that it's mostly marketing hype.
Unless I missed something badly in my reading of the thing, this seems like
pretty old news to me.

TTYL,

Phillip Rhodes
Application Designer
Voice Data Solutions
919-571-4300 x225
prhodes at vdsinc.com

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