RE: [cross-project-issues-dev] Europa impressions

["Walter Harley" <wharley@xxxxxxx>]

The JSR-109 project issue has been reported as
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=185239 .
 
  -walter


-----Original Message-----
From: cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:cross-project-issues-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of
Pascal Rapicault
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2007 8:38 AM
To: Cross project issues
Subject: [cross-project-issues-dev] Europa impressions


Hello,

I have now installed everything from Europa RC1 and would like to
comment on my impressions.

First startup
-------------
On the first startup, the user experience ended being a nightmare. I
selected a topic in the Welcome screen and it took well over 25 seconds
before the Eclipse Help window appeared, and during this time the UI was
not refreshed and it appeared that Eclipse had frozen.

It turns out the root of this problem is caused by having too many
plug-ins contributing to the UI early startup extension point so they
are started automatically when Eclipse starts. Is it necessary for all
of these plug-ins to be started on every startup? I encourage the
plug-in owners for these plug-ins to review why they using this
extension point, and perhaps defer their plug-in initialization until
later. (see list in attached
screenshot)

Also when I started Eclipse, I was presented with a Mylar dialog
welcoming me to the Mylar project. This was unexpected and perhaps
should be integrated into the Intro page.


Cluttered UI
------------

Now added to the Resource perspective (originally contributed by the
Platform), are a second task list and two IP-XACT views. This is just
one example but it seems like many people are contributing their views
to other people's perspectives. People must be careful when doing this
because 1) it can end up in places without context and 2) if everyone
contributes to the same perspective, it can get very cluttered. The same
also applies to menu items, toolbar buttons, etc.

There is a new view called the Task List view contributed by Mylar which
can cause confusion with the Tasks view contributed by the Platform.
(note it appears in multiple perspectives)


Unwanted project
----------------

When I first opened the Resource Perspective, there was already a
project named "JSR-109 Web Services" in my Project Explorer. The first
problem is that I didn't create this...who did? And why? The second
problem is that the project is unresponsive to standard actions and I am
unable to get a context menu on the resource. Therefore I can't delete
it, etc. So I thought that I would find the project location and delete
it from disk but it was not created in the default workspace location.
And I cannot find the location because the resource properties are
unavailable.


Writing to bad locations
------------------------

Upon investigation of the file-system, I discovered that there were
multiple files written to the Eclipse install location, which must be
treated as a read-only location. These files should really be written
into either the workspace metadata directory or the configuration area.
(derby.log, corona*.log, JackRabbitRepositories)

When looking into the workspace directory itself, I see directories
created there that do not have any corresponding projects in my
workspace. As a rule, the workspace directory is owned by the Resource
plug-in and it should be treated as a private area. However, you are
able to write into the .metadata directory and this is probably where
these files/folders should be moved. (.mylar, Eclipse Monkey Examples,
Datagraphs, etc)

Upon further inspection, I opened the Navigator view and found some of
those folders/projects. So 1) why are they not present in the Project
EXplorer? 2) why are these projects created for free?


Summary
-------

I have opened bugs for some of these issues and I encourage others to
download and test Europa and do the same. Its only with real integration
testing and use of the product as a whole that we will sort out some of
these issues and get to a point where it looks like Europa is not just a
bunch of projects thrown together at the last minute.

So here are a few rules to remember, most of which requesting action
from your part. I know it is late but if it is not done now, it will
never be.
- Your plug-in is not the most important thing:
      - do not start your plug-in on startup.
      - do not gratuitously put your views in random perspectives
      - do not contribute menus / action sets to all perspectives
      - do not create projects in the workspace on startup.

- Not all folders can be written into
      - do not write into the eclipse install location. In many cases
this will be marked read only.
      - do not write at the root of the workspace. Write in the
.metadata folder instead.

- Performance and UI responsiveness
      - http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Performance_Bloopers
      - make sure to run long running operations in the background using
the jobs API
      - use as much as possible Job API instead of creating threads


I'm sure I have forgotten things here, this is far from an exhaustive
list.
But what I'm getting at is that first impressions mean a lot and we want
users to have a good out-of-the-box experience with Eclipse.

Now you are likely asking "who are you to talk to us like that?". I'm a
developer who takes pride and care in crafting something that works,
performs and does not look too goofy, and I want to be proud, not
ashamed, by the Europa content.

Thanks for your attention,

PaScaL

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