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

[Ed Merks <merks@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Oleg,

I think the question to ask is not what will e4 do for me (the community), but rather what will I (the community) do for e4? In other words, the primary goal of e4 is to build a community of involved participants who will work together on whatever they think is cool in order to meet the needs of the people whose needs they want to meet. What you've outlined would work well only if the target audience whose requirements we strive to meet would pay money for that venture rather than offering mostly just their undying gratitude. Let's assume, for example, that we did the steps below and discovered that a really awesome profiler, a totally radical visual builder, and excellent integration between all Eclipse's hundred of projects. Who would feel obligated to make it happen?


Ed Merks/Toronto/IBM@IBMCA
mailto: merks@xxxxxxxxxx
905-413-3265 (t/l 313)


Oleg Besedin/Ottawa/IBM@IBMCA

Oleg Besedin/Ottawa/IBM@IBMCA
Sent by: eclipse-incubator-e4-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

05/02/2008 03:09 PM

Please respond to
E4 developer list <eclipse-incubator-e4-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>

To	eclipse-incubator-e4-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
cc
Subject	[eclipse-incubator-e4-dev] E4: shouldn't we define the goals first?

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 _______________________________________________
eclipse-incubator-e4-dev mailing list
eclipse-incubator-e4-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/eclipse-incubator-e4-dev