I've been using Spring RCP for at least a couple of years now... here are my
two cents as to what is needed feature-wise:
1. You've got to provide a decent set of canned page layouts for the common
cases. For example, one common scenario would be to have a tree control or
list on the left and a tabbed pane on the right, or some variation of that.
The average user is never going to bother to learn to write a custom page
factory for their layout needs, and it is VERY common to want more than one
View on the screen at the same time (think nicely docked views ala Eclipse,
and not disorganized frames in a virtual desktop). I've tried all of the
open source docking frameworks and they all suck, so I've given up hope on a
non-commercial docking solution. An open source docking framework for Views
is not adequate...I would be ashamed to roll out an app with VLDocking. We
need some canned fixed layouts to choose from.
2. Jide-Spring RCP cures #1 via Jide Docking, but it is a commercial
solution. We need a poor man's version without docking that just places 2-3
views in commonly needed ways. For example, provide a canned page layout
that creates a vertical split with one view on the left, and one on the
right.
3. A 'Perspectives' concept. Jonny Wray has done some work in this area as
part of his Jide-Spring RCP, but this should be part of the core Spring RCP.
Please take a look at his work.
4. A Job/Task scheduler for background threads, that allows user to see a
list of background tasks are in progress. Similar to the one Eclipse has....
you can open a dialog that shows the progress of MORE THAN ONE background
thread in a list, and individual tasks can be stopped. It seems like I saw
this in the new JSR: Swing App Framework...perhaps that code could be
integrated...if it exists.
5. A plugin/update mechanism!!!! This would be great. It doesn't even have
to allow for on-the-fly updates. A restart of the app would be okay. Start
small...even if it is something as dumb as downloading a JAR and
programmatically modifying the application context with additional beans.
6. Need the concept of an EDITOR AREA, where editors exist...again, similar
to Eclipse.
Here I'm talking about the tabbed pane residing in the center of the screen.
Jonny Wray has this in his Jide Spring RCP framework and it works great.
However, we need a non-commercial alternative, and it should be part of the
core framework.
7. This is far less important and totally out of scope...but it doesn't hurt
to ask... Provide integration with the Jide Dashboard, so that Views can be
used as Dashboard widgets. I've worked with the Jide Dashboard and their
architecture is already simiilar to the View concept. You can just implement
an additional interface and you're ready to go.
The Spring RCP project is excellent, and it can definitely overtake
Eclipse/Netbeans as the platform of choice if any serious effort is put into
it. I hope this helps.
-Trey
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