Last revised: 2008/08/26

This plan is under continuous refinement. Please send comments about this plan to the platform-debug-dev@eclipse.org developer mailing list.

Overall Goals

This section lists the goals for Eclipse 3.5 for the Platform and JDT Debug components as listed on the Eclipse Project 3.5 Draft Plan.

[1] Performance. Monitor overall performance and memory consumption.

[2] Reliability. Provide APIs for clients where needed and fix critical bugs.

[3] Keep Eclipse vibrant and attractive. Investigate enhancements such as debugging without the debug view and support for multi-context debugging.

Cross Team Issues

This section contains cross team issues that have to be clarified. The concrete outcome affects the plan items listed below.

• JDT/Core buildpath enhancements:
  • chained jars on the buildpath (bug 198572)
  • support '..' in classpath entries (bug 57732)
  • custom compiler settings/classpath per source folder (bug 87215, bug 105372, bug 205380, bug 220928)
  • mark source folders as test only (bug 224708)
    
  • (investigate) nested jars on the buildpath (bug 103136)
    
  • source attachment improvements: multiple root path, multiple source path (bug 173641, bug 208171)

General Items [2]

• 3.4.1 maintenance work
• Bug fixing

General Items [2]

• 3.4.1 maintenance work
• Bug fixing

Reliability [2]

• >[M3] Create a framework based on the virtual viewer that simulates the common debugger views and validates debug model's content providers. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 242489]

APIs [2]

• >[M3] Make it easier to create different breakpoint types from the same editor. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 212316]
• >[M3] Allow command framework handlers easy access to active debug context. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 229219]

Testing

• test plan for the 3.5 M2 test pass.

Usability/Workflow [3]

• > [deferred to M4] Debugging without the debug view or debug perspective
  • Active debug context switcher
    • Create a lightweight mechanism for switching and reporting the active debug context (Pawel Piech, Wind River).
  • Debug toolbar
    • Add a top-level toolbar for Debug actions (Pawel Piech, Wind River).

Platform Enhancements[2]

• Make run to line adapter asyncronous (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 213074]
• Allow breakpoints to specify when they should be overwritten on import (Michael Rennie, IBM) [bug 244059]
• Support ILaunchConfigurations on External File System (Darin Wright, IBM) [bug 236980]
• > Make it easier to create different breakpoint types from the same editor. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 212316]
• > Allow command framework handlers easy access to active debug context. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 229219]

JDT Enhancements[2]

• Execution Environments: Support for custom execution environments. This is a joint effort between OSGi, JDT, and PDE. OSGi needs support for contributing OSGi profile definitions. JDT needs to be able to reference those profiles (connect an .ee file to an OSGi profile), PDE needs to be able to set compiler options based on an OSGi profile, and API tooling needs to be able to understand the profile definitions as well to build a system library component. (Darin Wright, IBM)
• React to buildpath enhancements in JDT/Core (Darin Wright, IBM)

Testing

• > [deferred] Create a framework based on the virtual viewer that simulates the common debugger views and validates debug model's content providers. (Pawel Piech, Wind River) [bug 242489]
• test plan for the 3.5 M3 test pass.

Usability/Workflow [3]

• Memory View: streamline memory view workflow & reduce UI clutter (Ted Williams, Wind River) [bug 244822]
• Multi-context Debugging (Pawel Piech, Wind River)
  • Debug working sets: Implement a mechanism to let the user group a sub-set of debug contexts, and then use this sub-set to drive content of debugger views. A color, label, and a decorator could be used to identify the working set.
  • Multiple instances of debugger views: Allow user to create multiple instances of Variables, Registers and other debugger views. To make this feature useful, also allow the user to select the input debug context for the views.

JDT Enhancements[2]

• React to buildpath enhancements in JDT/Core (Darin Wright, IBM)
• Address Mac OS launching issues:
  • Bug 212605 - [launching] Mac OS X launcher should not hide the necessary -XstartOnFirstThread
  • Bug 156343 - Standard VM not supported on MacOS

Testing

• test plan for the 3.5 M4 test pass.

Testing

• test plan for the 3.5 M5 test pass.

Testing

• test plan for the 3.5 M6 test pass.

Performance

Polish

Testing

• test plan for the 3.5 M7 test pass.