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[nebula-dev] Move Zest to a new home
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GEF, Nebula and Mylar developers,
After a few months of work, the Zest API [1] is much better and much
more stable. Zest is a set of Widgets and Viewers build on Draw2D. The
widgets are currently limited to a Directed Graph Widget, although a
graphical tree widget and nested graph widget are in early stages, and a
sequence chart viewer (which may be released) is also currently being
developed.
[1] http://www.eclipse.org/mylar/zest.php
Zest was originally developed to provide visualization support for Mylar
task contexts, although the generic nature of these views has made them
applicable to many other domains. Currently the graph view is being used
for plug-in dependency visualizations [2]. A few months ago, Zest was
approved as component of Nebula project, although I wanted to solidify
the API by providing both an SWT and JFace style interface. I have now
completed this. As well, I have created several code snippets to provide
examples of how to make use of this technology [3].
[2] http://www.eclipse.org/mylar/images/zest_screen1.JPG
[3] http://www.eclipse.org/mylar/sandbox/zest/zest_snippets.php
However, at EclipseCon I was approached by the GEF team to readdress the
possibility of Zest moving as a subcomponent of GEF. This has left me a
little conflicted as I don’t want to step on any toes. The Zest widgets
act like widgets and I have tried to follow both the SWT and JFace
guidelines (although there is some work still to do here). On the other
hand, Zest depends on Draw2D, and therefore will never really graduate
into SWT. Finally, Zest provides a set of Graph Layouts which are really
only appropriate for GEF / Draw2D based viewers and editors.
I think everyone agrees that while Mylar gave Zest a great home, it is
time to make the viewers more generally available. I am happy to move
Zest to wherever the community feels is the best place.
I have created a bug to track this issue [4]. I have e-mailed this out
to a number of lists, and I’m sure this does not affect everyone, so if
you have comments please respond on the bug report.
[4] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=182621
Best Regards,
Ian
