Eclipse 'RCP' promotion and documentation
When we discuss with people using Eclipse they are basically in 2 groups : one is using only the IDE and the other is developing applications based on Eclipse RCP. Actually when a new IDE release is provided, a new target platform becomes available for the RCP developers. Unfortunately there is not a lot of promotion of this new RCP target release, even if people knows where to find it.
I propose to increase the Eclipse RCP communication and/or visibility. Today, if you search on google "Eclipse RCP", in the first page we get :
- Eclipsepedia : the link has moved to gitHub.com/eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.ui ... bad
- Eclipse IDE for RCP and RAP Developers : link** is on the 2022-03 release** !? Ouch... bad
- Eclipse (projet) : link to wikipedia, seems to be updated (in history : last update 14th of March 2025) correct
- Rich Client Tutorial Part 1 : a totally out of date tutorial (February 6, 2006 ... ).. close to 20 years old. awful
- An finally the Eclipse RCP Tutorial from Lars Vogel which is basically updated. good
On the first 5 links, 3 are totally out of date and disturb the image of RCP.
I know that changing the google rank for the pages is difficult.. but may be we could sort all of these information in a dedicated page defined on eclipseide.org
I propose :
- to add a button "Eclipse RCP" on eclipseide.org to display the most valuable links and to explain the basic of RCP architecture.
- to make the list of all the RCP links that can be interesting or not ...
- to remind to the users what are the advantages of Eclipse RCP and how it is still a modern platform to develop : on the latest jdk version, application model, injection, tool to help to debug (MAT, e4 spies, Mission Control...), open source, ...
- to list the professionals who can provide Professional services around eclipse technologies (OPCoach, Obeo, Eclipse Source, Artal, ... ) -> that will be a tricky point with EF :)
- add information about the current situation of the Eclipse RCP platform : what has been done, what is expected (-> link to swat-initiative 31, ...).
The software industry needs reassurance about the platform's long-term viability and future developments and also it needs to know that professional can help them if they need. Of course not a lot of projects starting from scratch will use Eclipse RCP as a main architecture, but for all the projects built on this technology and all the companies that are still using it, it is necessary to have a direction and some information about the long term support ...
When I talk to users at conferences, they say they really need to know about the future of the platform and are afraid of its sustainability (if they still use the platform for their projects). And there is no single place where this is explained.
Providing this kind of information could motivate people to contribute.
This issue is opened to discussion and will be broken into several issues in the 'eclipseide.org' website repository.