Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Plug-Ins (Eclipse Series)

However, eclipse itself is not so bad and the on-line documentation (as opposed to this book) is actually useful. I particularly recommend the articles by John Arthorne.

I'm sorry about giving such a negative review but I think it's important to discourage this kind of "cultism."


Feels like a first draft   February 17, 2004
 8 out of 10 found this review helpful

Big name authors, but the book really doesn't deliver.

The authors take the approach of guiding the reader through 3 "circles" of eclipse development. This reasonable pedagogical approach is underminded by frequent errors and unexplained changes/additions to the code being developed.

Circles 0 and 1 take the reader through the canonical "Hello World" example followed by a more substantial example Test plugin. Circle 1 is particularly let down by various unexplained additions to the code being developed. Additionally, complex code approaches are adopted which hinder the explaination of the task at hand.

Throughout these circles, various interesting but unnecessary sidebars meander through justifications for why the Eclipse way is "Right"[tm]. These sidebars are poorly placed and delve far into the philosophy behind Eclipse. The content of these sidebars is interesting, however the diversions only serve to muddy the waters at a point where the reader is mostly interested in learning how to write a plugin. (As opposed to becoming a member of the Eclipse cult.)

Circle 2 continues with the development of the test plugin started in circle 1, expanding functionality and exposing the reader to further aspects of plugin development.

Finally, circle 3 takes a higher level look at appropriate patterns for plugin development. This is the place where the earlier philosophy and detailed information scattered in circles 0 and 1 would have best been presented. (That is after the reader has a grasp of the terminology and has got enough speed up for the information to be useful.)

Overall, the writing is reasonable but tends towards sloppy in places. In a sense the writing feels like it needs some quality time with a good editor.


Lots to Offer   February 17, 2004
 6 out of 11 found this review helpful

Guess the only negative review on here established that you probably shouldn't buy this book if you consider yourself an expert on the subject. I'm usually sympathetic to criticism of books that claim that the examples are too simple (very common, showstopping problem with MANY books), but in this case, I think the balance that is struck is just about perfect. You can follow what is being done in the code while reading along, and the code actually does stuff that is useful.

The real reason this book deserves 5 stars is, the secret is that this book is actually 4 or 5 books in one, and it's also perhaps one of the best practical guides to the future of programming. Consider:

1. Just the unit testing aspects of this book are better than in many books that are just about unit testing.

2. Framework programming is a really dimly lit subject. The only frameworks most people have any experience with are UI frameworks. Eclipse is a great example of a comprehensive framework, given the fact that all things are done as extensions. Just that aspect of this book is a hugely important lesson to be gleaned. The literal expert will say they already knew how to do each step; the structuralists in the crowd know that a big part of successful pedagogy is having people experience the making of something (in the same way that cookbooks are a fusion of things to learn about technique, not just a collection of specific recipes).

3. The pattern discussion is good and benefits from its situation in the broader framework context. (Checkout the Junit Cook's Tour article by the same authors; it is one of the best short works on patterns around.)

The only knock on this book is that it's about Eclipse 2.x. At Eclipsecon a couple weeks ago, almost the whole room raised their hands during a straw poll about how many were using 3.x. Because of the above, this book is still worth it. Would have been nice if someone updated the code to compile with 3.x though.


beginners guide only   January 18, 2004
 6 out of 13 found this review helpful

I just received my copy, expecting a pound of deep revelations about the philosophy and architecture of eclipse, which could also benefit a rather experienced plugin developer like I consider myself. After all, the illustrous names on the front cover seemed to justify the expectation that this was not a "plugin programming in 3 days" course. However, the book I held in hands was of the kind that could easily be condensed to booklet format if a lesser generous layout and was used. The numerous screenshots contribute their part, although the volume is still rather moderate.

In the end, my conclusion is that this book may have been put together in a similar manner as described on the back of the cover: "Erich and Kent enjoy programming together while glacier hopping high in the swiss alps".

Let me add that this review is mainly from the standpoint of a fairly experienced plugin programmer, and it is from that standpoint that I only rate it one star. The situation may be different for someone who needs a brief introduction to get going in this field.


Excelent Book about Eclipse contribution   January 15, 2004
 2 out of 5 found this review helpful

This book is Excelent. It is written in a clear way, with a very accesible language and excelent examples that get you going, in just a matter of hours, into writing full Eclipse plugins. The authors teach every lesson with perfect examples and pointers to the Eclipse platform. This book is great not only for learning how to contribute to Eclipse, but also for learning Eclipse itself! It could very well be a book about "Learning Eclipse by writing plug-ins".

This book is an excelent guide and a reference all Eclipse developer shoould have.