Eclipse/SWT plugin for RCP and Update Site!

It is encouraging to see that jME is actively being used. I would really like to see Monklypse for jME3. Here’s my reasoning:



My interest for a 3D Java graphics SDK is not so much for gaming, but for simulations as well as data mining and visualization. As such integration with other software tools is extremely useful (probably even a requirement). Eclipse is a popular integration platform with a wide variety of contributed plug-ins. Monklypse would give me the 3D graphic capailities I need, plus the integratibility that I also need.

markthetser said:
Eclipse is a popular integration platform with a wide variety of contributed plug-ins.

Same accounts for the NetBeans platform which jMP bases on, you have a wide variety of integration libraries right at your fingertips, its even OSGI compatible.

@Mark and @normen have both sort of hit different sides of the proverbial nail on its proverbial head :slight_smile:



The use of one platform or another in corporations is usually a decision made by someone who [like everyone else] has a preference for one or the other. There’s really no right answer for which to use as much as I’d like to say there is… Its also likely unrealistic to develop an Eclipse framework and one for NetBeans side-by-side. I personally wouldn’t discourage anyone from doing anything that helps the project’s user-base especially when it references something as sensitive as choice of IDE. Disregarding an open-source project because they’re NetBeans-centric and you’re an Eclipseaholic isn’t such a big deal when you think about all the other stupid decisions we humans make.



That all said though, its really clear to me that we should just build our own IDE with the powerful, reliable, cost-effective, leading-edge, easy-to-use, hard-to-break .NET platform :wink:

OSGi compatible?! That’s perfect. Please help me get this functionality.



I had downloaded jME2_0_1-Stable. I saw no META-INF directory (and therefore no MANIFEST.MF file) Those are needed to create an OSGi compliant bundle. jME2_0_1-Stable only contains src, lib and junit directories. Thoughts?



Moreover, I downloaded the demoapp, from http://code.google.com/p/monklypse/ (mentioned earlier in this forum) and its MANIFEST.MF mentions monklypse plugins. Is this an old demo?



So (and please forgive me) what do I do to get a OSGi bundle of jME?



Thank you very much for your help with this.

No, the jMonkeyPlatform IDE is OSGi compatible, not jMonkeyEngine :slight_smile: Look here: https://wiki.jmonkeyengine.org/legacy/doku.php/jme3:jmonkeyplatform

Also, I am talking about jME3 solely, jME2 is a simple jar library that you can add to any project or platform really.

Cheers,

Normen

The OSGi question has been asked loooong time ago, as far as i remember. When it comes to RCP applications in Java, Eclipse is the choice for most serious developers, since the Eclipse ecosystem is by far superior to what Sun/Oracle has to offer.

Talking about Oracle, i don’t see such a bright future for NetBeans anyways. Oracle is strategic member of the Eclipse foundation and member of OSGi. I doubt there will be put much effort in Jigsaw in the near future :wink:

But who knows.

MW3D is a nice feature rich editor already, with a lot of annoying bugs though, but i didn’t compare it to jMonkeyPlatform :wink:

Monklypse, on the other hand, should be official part of the jME IMHO, because its just a wrapper for RCP developers to include 3D scenes in their applications.

Looking at the Eclipse marketplace, and all the plans of the eclipse foundation (monetarizing eclipse plugins aka “apps”), a game engine would be perfect.

Too bad that i dont have a clue about jME3 programming at all. Tareq (aka Outrunner), as the original developer of the SWT binding for jME, doesnt have much time either, so there is little chance to “reactivate” him.



So, if there is anybody around here, with a good Eclipse/OSGi and jME3 know-how, i would be glad to add him or her as a committer to the monklypse project.

Well, I dont wanna get into fanboy talk here about better or more professional…

If theres anything happening from Oracles side then its the merging of the Eclipse/OSGI platform and the NetBeans platform, which is already happening in fact. As I just pointed out jMP is OSGi plugin compatible and its components could be very easily made a set of OSGi plugins but thats not what its supposed to be.

normen said:
... its components could be very easily made a set of OSGi plugins but thats not what its supposed to be.


I am not sure why you say "thats not what its supposed to be."
If the components were OSGi plugins, I don't believe it would change current functionality, plus they would be following a standard deployment model and would be accessible to a greater audience. (i.e. the Ecilpse developers)

Simple reason is that when the components are only used in jMP theres way less room for error and problems resulting from the underlying platform. Time I spend solving OSGi integration problems on other platforms like Eclipse could be time I invest in new jMP functions. Its kind of an “Apple” way of avoiding problems. As said, if you want you can compile it as OSGi plugins yourself.

Cheers,

Normen

Thread seems to have broken. Testing with new reply.



… odd, it insists on adding a 3rd page, but it’s not accessible.

I believe it is important to distinguish between “what the product should be” and “what you have time for right now”. I appreciate that you don’t have time to do everything, but those that are in the product’s best interest should put it on the list of things-to-do so they can be prioritized.



As for delivering the components as OSGi bundles, I would see it as a way to encourage broader acceptance and thus encourage more contributors to join on. Even just making them OSGi bundles (without even testing them on other platforms like Eclipse) would certainly gain the interest of Eclipse developers like myself.

Its really about how much control there is for us over what the users get. Its supposed to be a standalone Application, integration for people who desperately want to use Eclipse to write code will be done via projects that only manage the assets part of the project while the coding part can be done in Eclipse or any other IDE. Just imagine the whole NetBeans Platform and/or OSGi part was not there. You dont ask the Unreal or Unity SDK to be a plugin for all kinds of IDE’s do you?



But here, for you and all “Eclipse developers” as an experiment, download jMP as OSGi plugins here (unsupported) :o

If you want to build later versions yourself, use jMP or NetBeans (just close your eyes or let somebody else do it) to build jMP as described in the wiki and then create OSGi packages with it :stuck_out_tongue:



Cheers,

Normen

OSGi isnt that big problem, its the SWT binding :wink:

Well, ok, a game made with SWT or AWT is probably not the best way anyway as its not compatible to phones and/or other non-desktop platforms, thats why I removed the Swing GUI editor in jMP by default and made it an extra install. And anyway SWT will merge with AWT some time soon in JDK7 I guess, Oracle plans to make AWT more similar to SWT (a bit more system-dependent and a bit faster). Look at their recently released JavaFX plans.

Hmmm…



I understand that the osgi.zip is unsupported. I assumed I could:

I am willing to put up with an AWT/Swing based 3d graphics package (although SWT integration is preferred), but now I have to rethink the use of jMonkeyPlatform 3 for my SWT plugin.