API Design with Eclipse

The design of the API of a class based on the visibility of its members is in Eclipse fairly easy thanks to the Outline view. One level up (the package level) there are no such nice hints for the visibility. Therefore I created a small plug-in that decorates Java classes in the package explorer view with the visibility icons. „API Design with Eclipse“ weiterlesen

Eclipse plug-in manifest

The Eclipse plug-in manifest is also known as OSGi Manifest(Although the page says OSGi bundle, some of the described features are specific for Eclipse). In an earlier article I already addressed some of these issues. With this one I want revisit those and describe some more features, that I found helpful in my daily work with plug-in development. „Eclipse plug-in manifest“ weiterlesen

Createing Java Emitter Templates

There are many ways you can go about to produce your Java Emitter Template (JET). During the process of developing my plug-in I gathered some experience that might make the process of creating a JET easier.
„Createing Java Emitter Templates“ weiterlesen

Effective Eclipse Plug-ins

The architecture of Eclipse and the structural concept of the underling OSGi framework are sometimes hard to combine with „effective Java“ programming as Joshua Bloch propagates it in his book „Effective Java„.
When you want to extend the functionality you must make certain compromises designing your API. This article describes how you can implement functionality with exposing a minimal API.
„Effective Eclipse Plug-ins“ weiterlesen

Adding context sensitive Help to your Plug-in

For my Code generation plug-in I wanted to add some context sensitive help. Looking for any hints I only found a quick description at Macrobug’s that dates back in autumn 2007 when Eclipse 3.3 (Europa) was the current platform. Following these steps I could not produce any meaningful results. Therefore I figured it out on my own and present my solution here for anyone interested.
„Adding context sensitive Help to your Plug-in“ weiterlesen