LOGIN | REGISTER NOW | SUBSCRIBE
 
print Printable version 
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Mono brings .NET to Android
At Microsoft MIX, Mono will unveil the ability to port .NET applications to the Android op...

Does Windows cost Microsoft opportunities?
Microsoft's decision to focus .NET on Windows is stifling innovation due to the specter of...

OSBC focus turns to best practices for open-source adoption
Businesses are no longer asking why they should adopt, but how do they use open source leg...

Digg!  Digg
Reddit  Reddit
Slashdot  Slashdot
Share on facebook  Facebook
Share on Twitter  Twitter

As Eclipse's World Grows, So Do Tools for Organization


By David Rubinstein
December 1, 2007 — 
RESTON, VA. — With the Eclipse Foundation hosting more than 80 projects in the three-and-a-half years of its existence, complexity was bound to be an issue. Two companies discussed software to help Eclipse users navigate through those crowded waters at BZ Media's EclipseWorld Conference held here in early November. BZ Media is the parent company of SD Times.

Just as iPod owners need iTunes to sort through the catalog of music available to them, Eclipse users need a mechanism to sort through the plug-ins available to them, as well as a means to share their findings.

While GOOD Software's Bjorn Gustafsson lamented this development as a sign of the growing complexity of the Eclipse framework, Genuitec, maker of MyEclipse, saw this as an opportunity and at EclipseWorld in early November unveiled Pulse, a platform for creating Eclipse "profiles" that can contain different plug-in configurations.

"Users are having a hard time bringing together things that work, and even knowing what things are out there," said Tim Webb, Genuitec's Pulse product manager. He described Pulse as a rich client application that sits on desktops and includes some profiles that are ready to go. He said in the future, a software catalog for a specific vertical market could be put together, and Pulse could help users create a profile for that market.

CEO Maher Masri also noted that in the future, Pulse could manage licensing and compliance, and it could become a tool for buying software and provisioning it to an entire team.

Meanwhile, a company called Cloudsmith, which launched in mid-November, is offering up a framework for "assembling software directly from the cloud," according to founder and CEO Mitch Sonies. "How do developers respond when components are coming from all over the place, when the codebase is no longer your own?" he asked. Cloudsmith provides a mechanism for mapping to various elements and creating a "virtual distribution" of software.

For instance, Sonies explained that a user could create a map to Apache's Tomcat servlet engine and its Derby database, along with the Eclipse Web Toolkit Project, and Cloudsmith will generate a link to that packaging. "You click on the link and it looks like a download utility. It's a virtual distro. A distro is an assembled thing. But there are no bits on a disk. It's a recipe. The parts are living in the cloud. We just make sure it can build and that it assembles." Distributions can be changed as often as a user would like, he added.

Virtual distributions allow for mass customization of software, Sonies said, noting that Red Hat or JBoss could not create a software distribution for one customer due to economies of scale. With Cloudsmith, Sonies said, users can watch materialization patterns and learn from what the community is doing.


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/31410
 

Add comment


Name*
Email*  
Country     


  • Comment
  • Preview
Loading



 
 
 
 
News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>


   

 
 
Download Current Issue
ISSUE 3/15/2010 PDF

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Receive the print Edition?


 
blogs tab
Google Code turns 5
Google Code Turns 5, and adds a Paxos Algorithm to make the system more stable and reliable.
03/17/2010 11:16 AM EST

Test your Visual Studio 2010 know-how
Microsoft is offering free beta certification exams for Visual Studio 2010.
03/17/2010 11:08 AM EST

Microsoft lifts the hood on IE9
Microsoft is previewing IE9.
03/16/2010 01:10 PM EST

 

Events calendar tab
EclipseCon
3/22/2010 to 3/25/2010
Santa Clara, Calif.
The Eclipse Foundation

DevConnections
4/12/2010 to 4/14/2010
Las Vegas
Penton Media

MySQL Conf. and Expo
4/12/2010 to 4/15/2010
Santa Clara, Calif.
O'Reilly Media

High Performance Computing Linux Financial Markets
4/19/2010
New York City
Flagg Management

Informix User Conf.
4/25/2010 to 4/28/2010
Overland Park, Kans.
IIUG