Life at Eclipse

I just came across this post on John O’Shea’s blog. I think it raises a very interesting point:

Unfortunately, Eclipse.org is also starting to exhibit similar cracks. A cursory look at the architectures of many of the top level projects (WTP, STP, TPTP, BIRT etc.) shows the lack of intra-project cooperation is resulting in frameworks that simply don’t integrate with one another in they ways we all want them to. I’m not sure whether the PMCs are responsible for this failure or if it is also the committer’s responsibility to “fit in” to the larger Eclipse eco-system better.

My sense is that this is an interesting dilemma for Eclipse. On one hand, some want Eclipse to be a highly integrated platform with a seamless experience across platforms, languages and lifecycle. (Callisto is a modest step in that direction.) On the other hand, as an open source community some focus on diversity and innovation and are uninterested in the heavy hand of centralized authority.

Sort of a Cathedral versus Bazaar dilemma.

So what do you think? Where do we need to find the balance within the Eclipse community?

Interestingly, Callisto is an example of where the Bazaar worked in interesting ways. The idea to do Callisto came from the projects themselves. It was not an idea that came from the Eclipse Foundation.

I get to join Ian at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC) this week. I spent several hours today walking the exhibit floor looking for Eclipse-based tools and products. They’re everywhere! I am really miffed with myself for forgetting to bring my camera.

Just a partial list of companies showing Eclipse-based tools are: QNX, WindRiver, Aonix, AMD, DDC-I, ENEA, IBM, KlocWork, LynuxWorks, Mentor Graphics, MontaVista and TimeSys.

The icing on the cake was discovering that Eclipse was the cover story for the issue of Embedded Systems Design being distributed at the conference. We had no idea, so it was a very welcome surprise.

I know that many people associate Eclipse with enterprise development tools, and more specifically with Java development, but the number of companies in the Eclipse ecosystem engaged with embedded and device software is massive. For most of these companies, the ability to build their tool chain by extending the Eclipse Platform and/or the C/C++ development tools (CDT) is a great enabler for their platforms.

Many thanks for Doug Gaff (WindRiver), Anders Florin (ENEA) and others who helped staff the Eclipse booth today.