RCP

Ups

• Value added
  • Help
  • Menus
  • Views
  • Editors
  • Dialogs and Wizards
    • Input validation!
  • Internationalization
  • Toolbars and "Coolbar"
  • Update mechanism
  • Branding
    • Splash screen
    • About
    • Icons
• Trendy
  • No, really

Downs

• Learning curve for SWT
  • Very different from Swing
    • No MVC built in
    • No inheritance allowed
    • Less type-safety
• Learning curve for JFace
  • Provides richer MVC than Swing
  • More complicated as a result
• Learning curve for Eclipse
• Incompatibility with Swing

Other

• Native LAF with attendant ups and downs
• Thick-client

Examples

• http://desktop.foreflight.com/
  • http://www.eclipse.org/community/images/foreFlight.jpg

Benefits to devs

• Introduction to latest well-established Java technologies
• Introduction to deploying "enterprise-level" (productized) Java app development features without reinventing them

Benefits to business

• In line with new DoD open source & community-knowledge-sharing initiatives
• $$$ todo

Angles

• Prototype
• Feasibility study

Login