[eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] E4: shouldn't we define the goals first?

[Oleg Besedin <obesedin@xxxxxxxxxx>]

In all the discussions that went around
E4, I haven't seen a "definition" of what Eclipse 4.0 is going
to be about. Is it going to be a perfect IDE? Or a portable runtime? Or
something a student can learn in 24 hours?

What would be a motivation for an Eclipse
3.x user or a Netbeans or Idea user to switch to Eclipse 4.0?

I think we'll have a better chance of
success with E4 if we define what we are trying to achieve first, before
we go into EMF, API, and JRE discussions.

        (First)
work out a "definition" of what is the purpose of Eclipse 4.0
         
      + define a target audience by developer type
and supported environment
         
      + some competitive analysis: current strengths
and weaknesses, projections for the target market 2 years down the road

        (Next)
based on the "definition", start branching into the end-user
requirements - both from the today's pain points and from the new areas
we'd like to cover
        
        (Very
next) based on requirements, work out specific technologies to be used

Was this addressed in a presentation
for the Eclipse board that somebody mentioned? 

Thanks,
Oleg