[eclipse-dev] Re: RCP Apps and Modifying Eclipse.org Plug-ins

[Eric Clayberg <clayberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> I have seen enough data points to suggest this is not a fringe case.

General use of internal packages within RCP apps or plugins is definitely 
not a fringe case. If access to existing internal packages were turned off 
tomorrow, I think you would immediately break 50% of the plugins available 
from EPiC or 2Y and most of the *major* 3rd party plugins available in the 
world today including most of the products built by Eclipse board member 
companies.

Turning off internal packages access (especially for existing packages) 
represents a major *policy* decision that probably should be made at the 
Eclipse board level rather than in the trenches. We certainly try to avoid 
internal "APIs", but we won't apologize for using them when we need to. We 
need to support every major version of Eclipse going back to v2.0 and many 
APIs that are public now were private in the Eclipse 2.x or 3.0 time frames.

We *accept* the burden of using internal code and have gone to great 
lengths to make sure that our products run on every major Eclipse version. 
Even today, we are one of the few 3rd party vendors that does that (both 
our CodePro products and our SWT/Swing Designer products run in Eclipse 
2.0, 2.1, 3.0 and 3.1 including M6). We have a working process in place for 
using internal code effectively and shielding our users from it. The last 
thing we need is "Big Brother" enforcing internal package access for us.

As I said above, I think turning off internal package access would have a 
devastating effect on the 3rd party plugin community and it isn't something 
that should happen without significant board level discussion.

-Eric Clayberg
 Sr. Vice President of Product Development
 Instantiations, Inc.
 mailto:clayberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
 http://www.instantiations.com
 http://www.windowbuilderpro.com

 Author: "Eclipse: Building Commercial Quality Plug-ins"
 http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321228472