[eclipse-pmc] preparing to graduate API tooling

[Darin Wright <Darin_Wright@xxxxxxxxxx>]

PMC and others,

We are preparing to graduate the API
tooling component from the PDE incubator to the Eclipse project. Our top
level wiki page can be found here:

        http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDE_UI_Incubator_ApiTools

I have requested a graduation review
with the EMO. For the 3.4 release we will be focused on delivering the
following critical features:

* Javadoc tags for documenting API rules
in classes, interfaces, and methods (effectively replaces the old 'component.xml')
* A user interface to define and manage
"API profiles" (used for comparison purposes)
* An integrated builder that reports
API usage and binary compatibility errors with a previous release
* Support to flag and quick fix missing
@since tags and incorrect bundle/plug-in version numbers
* Workspace and project specific settings
for API problem severities
* Support to filter/suppress known/allowed
API breakage problems

We will also investigate other feature
such as:

* Searching API profiles for use of
API and non-API code
* Analyzing versions of prerequisite
bundles to determine which are "API compatible" in terms of use
(helps determine minimal required versions of prerequisite bundles)

Upon successful graduation, we will
want to create some new bundles in the Eclipse project and assign commit
rights to developers from the incubator project.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,

Darin Wright