Eclipse 101

If you’re using the task-focused UI from Mylyn, then you get a lot of help when it comes to assembling a message for your commit (if you’re not using the task-focused UI from Mylyn, then you need to re-examine your wasted life). Mylyn automatically populates the commit message in the...

With the adoption of Git and Gerrit, and the implementation of the new Contributor License Agreements (CLA) as part of our social coding efforts, contributing to Eclipse projects has never been easier. While it is easier, there are still important requirements that need to be met.. We’ve implemented some extensions...

The programme has been announced for EclipseCon Europe 2013, and I’m in it. I’ll be sharing the stage with my colleagues Denis Roy and Sharon Corbett to deliver the first ever Eclipse Committer Bootcamp. Are you a new committer or project lead for an Eclipse project? Are you thinking about...

Most of the open source projects that I’m familiar with don’t tend to take significant contributions unless they come with development resources. Taking on significant new functionality can be pretty daunting for development teams that are already stretched. But how do you on-board new developer (committers) while observing the open...

An unrelated problem drew my attention to the Understanding Layouts in SWT article. It’s always bugged me that the many screenshots in this article are represented in JPEG format. JPEG is a lossy format that, in my humble opinion, is inappropriate for screenshots as the images end up with odd...

Creating an Common Build Infrastructure (CBI) at Eclipse has been one of our holy grail pursuits over the years. My main goal in this effort has been to get Eclipse committers out of the build business so that more time and energy can be focused on actually writing software (which...

I’ve been learning about styling using CSS in Eclipse 4. I’m capturing some of the steps that I’ve been following with these posts. Think of this as more of a journal than any sort of “how to” on the topic. The CSS Spy is a handy resource for figuring out...

Most definitions of success for an open source project includes widespread adoption: while the value of the satisfaction you get from writing a great bit of code shouldn’t be undervalued, it’s a great deal more satisfying when something you’ve built gets used by hundreds, thousands, or millions of people. A...

Probably the hardest thing about using Maven and Tycho to build my Eclipse project was getting my brain around how easy it is. I’m completely new to Maven. I’ve known about it for years. I’ve read some of the high-level documentation, but until last week had never actually used it...

Summer madness has force me to leave a gap in the delivery of my award-winning “ Eclipse is…” blog series. But I’m back now. In this series, I walk through the many different aspects of Eclipse, starting with the definition that most people are comfortable with: Eclipse is a Java...