Re: [Springframework-rcp-dev] [Spring Desktop] ideasfor theDesktopversion

[Lieven D. <lie...@ji...>]

Hello Peter,

Indeed, plugin functionality would be great. But I still don't know whether 
OSGi is the way to go there... Perhaps we can find a more KISS method to 
do this...

This weekend I did some research and I've looked at the current applications 
of OSGi and where it might fit into Spring Desktop. The main problem I would 
have with using OSGi in Spring Desktop's main architecture (for whatever 
reason) is that I would not want a user to be obligated to use OSGi just 
to create a straight-forward application. The advantages are also clear (better 
incremental development, upgrade parts of your app on the fly,...), but don't 
outweigh my doubts at the moment. 

If someone can show me an example where a framework uses OSGi transparently 
(the user doesn't know OSGi is used and isn't obligated to use OSGi when 
he uses the framework), I'm all ears. But I don't think this is possible. 
One way or another, OSGi will pop his head up and bother the average Joe 
programmer who just wants to make his address book in Spring Desktop... What 
I want to say here, it's great to consider enterprise level features such 
as OSGi (and features like that should be considered and eventually foreseen), 
but when you're burdening the smaller applications with these features you'll 
lose a lot of the current RCP users...

Greetz,

Lieven

> Hi Lieven,
> 
> like you, I think that almost all people will use springRC as one
> bundle.
> So it could be that no splitting is necessary (only the traditional
> way
> of jar bundles of course)
> But maybe I missed the point you are talking about.
> I don't know a lot of OSGi, but is it possible with this library to
> load
> plugins etc.? Like in Eclipse or NetBeans? (E.g. to update parts of
> your
> program or to offer additional features)
> This would be great for SpringRC and then my vote will be pro OSGi ;-)
> 
> Regards,
> Peter.
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