Monday, October 15, 2007

Plug-in Dependency Clarification

I posted earlier today that I released a version of my plug-in development visualization tool. I was wrong is saying this, since the project is in incubation and the version was 0.1. What I really did was make Milestone 1 of my plug-in development visualization tool available.

It is important that I make this clarification since my work is has not been deeply reviewed yet. I'm sorry if this caused any confusion.

Plug-in Dependency Visualization... M1 Available!

I was finally able to make a version of my Plug-in Dependency Visualization tool available on an update site.

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/pde/incubator/visualization/site



Point your update manager there if you want to try it out. The tool works with Eclipse version 3.3 (Europa) and later. The tool is pretty easy to use, simply load the view (Visualizations->Graph Plug-in Dependencies), right-click on the canvas, select "Focus On..." and select the bundle you wish to see.

I also put together a New and Noteworthy to highlight some of the features. I am already getting some good feedback, including Eugene's suggestion to remove the control panel (and make the options available through context menu) and to add extension point information.

As I mentioned before I did this work as part of the Summer of Code project. It was a great experience and I can't thank Chris Aniszczyk enough for encouraging me to apply and mentoring me throughout the summer. Seriously Chris, if you are in B.C. skiing this winter let me know, I owe you a few frosty beverages.

As for the SoC program, it is a great opportunity! For all you students out there, it is never to early to start thinking about ideas and bouncing them off Eclipse developers. As I won't be a student next summer (my wife and daughter will disown me if I am still in school next year :D ) I won't be participating as a student, however, I hope to help out as a mentor. Wayne, when does that start?