tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56209327624134940762024-03-04T23:58:33.642-08:00This Is The Frequency(in case you've been wondering)Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-2952457744497295032010-05-18T16:12:00.000-07:002010-05-18T16:13:04.206-07:00On Model-Based Modeling Builds...In principle, I think most people agree that builds should be a shared responsibility, i.e., everyone should be equally able to do builds and the effort to do so should be equally distributed. Unfortunately, equal effort can sometimes result in nobody doing anything at all, because hardly anybody wants to! Trying to do the right thing in this context has launched many an accidental career in release engineering. So the best we can do is make the build effort as efficient as possible, giving everyone less reason to complain.<br />
<br />
This has become essential for the Modeling project, which now has roughly sixty active sub-projects, many of which are one or two committer efforts with no way to justify a full-time release engineer. With that in mind, the Modeling PMC has <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Modeling_PMC_Meeting%2C_2010-03-16">recently decided</a> to standardize on one build engine - Buckminster (often affectionately referred to as "Bucky") - for all of its projects, starting with the Helios release.<br />
<br />
Why standardize? The obvious reason is to spread the joy of supporting build infrastructure across multiple projects. Less obvious, but no less important, is our not-so-distant goal of having a single build chain that can support true continuous integration for the entire Modeling stack, which should be much simpler if all of the builds are using the same technology.<br />
<br />
Why Buckminster? The people and technology were familiar, so that was obviously a factor. But we tried to make as objective a decision as possible. Key considerations were the following:<br />
<br />
<ul><li><a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emft/?project=cdo">CDO</a> and <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Teneo">Teneo</a>, having independently Buckminsterized last year, were enthusiastic supporters and made a strong case for the benefits.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Unlike the alternatives, Buckminster is model-driven (it uses EMF). This makes it a no-brainer for us modeling zealots.</li>
</ul><ul><li>We wanted to be able to reuse existing metadata, which is an advantage that Bucky has over Maven alternatives.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Having a build that runs the same way in a developer workspace as on the server makes it much more efficient to spread build responsibilities across the teams.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Adopting Buckminster gets us a step closer to using b3 (Buckminster will soon be supported as a build execution engine for b3), which we think is the future.</li>
</ul><ul><li>Last, but not least, someone (i.e., <a href="http://blog.cloudsmith.com/">Cloudsmith</a>) stepped up to do the work!</li>
</ul><br />
Upon closer inspection, Buckminster had a few <a href="http://henrik-eclipse.blogspot.com/2010/05/buckminster-36-new-noteworthy.html">holes</a> that needed filling. Support for automated build identifier generation/insertion, CVS tagging, and dependency version range management were non-negotiable for build slackers like <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">Ed Merks</a> (not to mention the rest of us mere mortals), and automated build promotion via Hudson was also highly desireable. So we rushed these changes through in time for Helios.<br />
<br />
The effort of migrating from various older build systems (PDE Build, Athena, and variants) was not inconsequential. However, it ended up being relatively painless. One reason I can say this is because Michal Ruzicka (Buckminster committer and my colleague at Cloudsmith) did pretty much all the work. Michal was able to Buckminsterize most of the key Modeling projects in roughly a month of effort, which was pretty amazing, all things considered. Thanks again, Michal!<br />
<br />
The first Buckminster build of EMF went live with M7 two weeks ago and the many other Modeling projects will soon follow. We'll be cutting a few key projects over as Helios heads toward completion. A number of others have chosen to postpone switching until just after the Helios release.<br />
<br />
We'll send out periodic updates as the individual projects adopt the new build system over the coming weeks, so stay tuned for more details. In the meantime, if you want to hear more about what we're doing (and how), let us know!Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-85031113868094232472010-05-10T14:21:00.000-07:002010-05-10T14:21:55.681-07:00On Google I/O...I'll be out at <a href="http://code.google.com/events/io/2010/">Google I/O</a> on May 19 and 20, talking up the work we've been doing with EMF on GWT and just generally learning more about all the great Google technologies we depend on.<br />
<br />
Regarding <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/05/on-where-were-using-emf.html">EMF support for Google Widget Toolkit</a>, we hope to have a working implementation of full modeling support for GWT applications before too long. Ed has been hard at work on this, and we'll soon have optimized object serialization between client and server, and a generic GWT editor for EMF-based models. We think this work will be really useful for GWT development once it's done.<br />
<br />
With respect to other Google technologies, Cloudsmith is particularly interested in App Engine and BigTable; we're using them now but still coming up the learning curve. Next after that is Wave, which we'd like to use but doesn't seem quite ready for prime time. We're hoping/expecting to see a renewed Wave commitment and inspirational roadmap from Google at I/O next week.<br />
<br />
Planning on being there? Let me know if you'd like to meet up!Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-51900466932026779072010-05-06T10:19:00.000-07:002010-05-06T11:49:38.281-07:00On Where We're Using EMF...Where are <i>you</i> using the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)? I've <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-e-in-emf.html">blogged recently</a> about how perhaps the "E" in <b>E</b>MF ought to stand for <b>E</b>xtensibility. More and more, I wonder whether maybe it should stand for "Everywhere" instead. While many feel a burning need to bring the Web to Eclipse, at Cloudsmith we see things a little differently. We see big potential in leveraging the great technologies at Eclipse in new and interesting ways (and places!), one of which is to bring Eclipse (and, more specifically, EMF) to the Web.<br />
<br />
When EMF made its debut at Eclipse some eight years ago, it was a framework for developing IDE-like applications. Then, it followed the lead of the Eclipse platform and expanded its reach to support Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications. Earlier in the Helios release cycle, we added support for the Rich Ajax Platform (RAP), which - thanks to the RAP folks' great work, particularly support for "single sourcing" an application - can almost be treated as a variant of RCP.<br />
<br />
With <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/downloads/?showAll=1&hlbuild=S201005041205&project=emf#S201005041205">Helios M7</a>, however, EMF moves past the boundaries of the Eclipse platform, and desktop applications in general, by adding support for the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) as a new application runtime. We've done this by formalizing the EMF code generator's notion of a "runtime platform" through an enumeration. Platforms that previously were only implicitly supported - 'IDE', 'RCP', and 'RAP' - are now explicit enumeration literals. And now we've added a new literal for 'GWT'.<br />
<br />
So, what does this mean? Well, depending on which runtime platform you choose in your generator model (and which platform you're targeting), you'll get a different result when you generate your code. For IDE and RCP, the only difference is in the editor (since RCP comes with certain limiting assumptions). With RAP, your edit and editor code isn't all that different from RCP, except that you'll have the ability to run against alternative versions of EMF's runtime UI plug-ins, which have been customized for RAP.<br />
<br />
In the case of GWT, however, when you generate your model and edit code (support for editor and tests will come over the next few months), you'll be targeting an entirely different EMF runtime, tailored to be translatable into Javascript modules and to leverage the capabilities of GWT (RPC serialization, localized message resources, image bundles, etc.).<br />
<br />
Ed and I will have more to say about the technical details of this new runtime over the coming weeks. In the meantime, you can refer to the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/EMF/New_and_Noteworthy/Helios#Support_for_Google_Web_Toolkit_.28GWT.29">New and Noteworthy page for Helios</a> to help you get started with developing EMF-based applications for GWT!Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-26545186799726933982010-05-05T08:57:00.000-07:002010-05-05T08:57:11.121-07:00On Looking Good...Appearance isn't everything, but it certainly goes a long way, especially for things that are inherently visual. In light of this, the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project_summary.php?projectid=modeling.mdt.papyrus">MDT Papyrus project</a> is about to provide some new eye candy for its users. The project already has an <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/papyrus/images/Papyrus.gif">impressive logo</a>, but now they've made some <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=311723">fresh new icons</a> for UML model element types. The Papyrus project lead, Sébastien Gérard, created a clever mosaic to show them off - see below. Let us know what you think!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGh9K2JBbgbrHIgksoQtAdh7JrQ6mNq9NusBlB-RRecvbgkvfBs8osh6OSfdAGVBMALDYcfGYk9pqFWpEKcGswE60DxYjkBaJZkBh6ul_8f7h4kq3hv1QphGroEmHnRrv_8k4tKVdXmMc_/s1600/PapyMosaic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGh9K2JBbgbrHIgksoQtAdh7JrQ6mNq9NusBlB-RRecvbgkvfBs8osh6OSfdAGVBMALDYcfGYk9pqFWpEKcGswE60DxYjkBaJZkBh6ul_8f7h4kq3hv1QphGroEmHnRrv_8k4tKVdXmMc_/s320/PapyMosaic.jpg" /></a></div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-58102381650686299772010-04-19T16:45:00.000-07:002010-04-19T16:46:02.757-07:00On Noteworthy Pairs...Phew. I've finally caught up after the <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-looking-up.html">frenzied activity</a> of the past few weeks and posted a <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/EMF/New_and_Noteworthy/Helios#Support_for_Rich_Ajax_Platform_.28RAP.29">New and Noteworthy entry</a> for the M6 milestone of EMF. If you attended the <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/sessions/?page=sessions&id=1463">EMF tutorial</a> or <a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/view_talk.php?id=1602">RAP BoF</a> at EclipseCon, or perhaps saw <a href="http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/2010/03/22/emf-and-rap-what-a-lovely-pair/">Ben's blog post</a> (gotta love the title of that one!), you're probably already aware of a great new <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=213988">enhancement</a> that was added to EMF, thanks to generous sponsorship from <a href="http://www.tradescape.biz/">another one of my clients</a>.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjMreQEFTfZqk3ZzXIIEwenfbiL8hms3YvnukHkF86LTc7U9SxKHVqyj_pOmBUTuwkJifViE6Ds2jyckX3n8quMPHTBA5-SzftdLSzUU94HJALtZBJ3bOBZLDyCyTo_IiLN3pB_POzTHX/s1600/Library.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPjMreQEFTfZqk3ZzXIIEwenfbiL8hms3YvnukHkF86LTc7U9SxKHVqyj_pOmBUTuwkJifViE6Ds2jyckX3n8quMPHTBA5-SzftdLSzUU94HJALtZBJ3bOBZLDyCyTo_IiLN3pB_POzTHX/s320/Library.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />
That's right, EMF now supports Rich Ajax Platform (RAP) out of the box. This means that you can now generate a sample "single-sourced" application that can be run against either an RCP (Rich Client Platform) or a RAP runtime target. Details can be found on the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/EMF/New_and_Noteworthy/Helios">New and Noteworthy page</a> for the Helios release of EMF. Thanks again to <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">Ed</a> and <a href="http://eclipsesource.com/blogs/author/bmuskalla/">Ben</a> for their help in making this happen in time for M6!Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-40273748411206885722010-04-15T12:09:00.000-07:002010-04-16T10:49:24.119-07:00On Architecture...<p>As you may have already gathered from <a href="http://relengofthenerds.blogspot.com/2010/04/architecture-council-2.html">Kim's blog</a> (yes, we're both from the same <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_Scotia">province</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truro,_Nova_Scotia">home town</a>, and no, the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tidal_bore">tidal bore</a> is not a pig), I've recently been appointed to the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Architecture_Council">Eclipse Architecture Council</a>. It's an honor to be in the company of such great <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/foundation/council.php#architecture">technical leaders</a>, especially my <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/04/on-looking-up.html">Cloudsmith</a> colleagues, two of whom (<a href="http://thhal.blogspot.com/">Thomas</a> and <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">Ed</a>) are on the council as well.</p><p>I've actually been spending a lot of time looking at architecture (or lack thereof) of late, primarily within the Modeling project. As I've <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-vision.html">mentioned before</a>, vision is one of the key contributors to a successful project, and a guiding architecture is an important part of such a vision. With the number of Modeling projects growing at an alarming rate (60+ and counting), it's going to be increasingly important to "bring order to the chaos", or risk the loss of potential consumers and contributors due to frustration, confusion, or both. Initiatives like <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/amalgam/">Amalgam</a> and the recently proposed <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/proposals/sphinx/">Sphinx</a> project certainly help, but there's a lot more that could be done.</p><p>Speaking of Sphinx, Stephan Eberle (one the proposed project leads) and I presented a talk at EclipseCon entitled "The Twenty Modeling Things", the slides for which can be viewed at <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/stephaneberle9/the-twenty-modeling-things">Slideshare</a> or via the EclipseCon <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/sessions/?page=sessions&id=1315">session page</a>. The basic idea of the presentation was to propose set of essential services that might one day form the basis for an integrated modeling workbench at Eclipse. Which "things" would you have included? Can you think of other services which ought to be on our list?</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-31113981600217845732010-04-06T13:55:00.000-07:002010-04-16T10:50:46.594-07:00On Looking Up...It's been a while since I <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-those-sexy-models.html">last blogged</a>, and much has happened in the meantime, including the completion of contracts with two different clients (more about those later), the M6 milestone of the Helios release, <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/">EclipseCon 2010</a>, a vacation in the Dominican Republic, and, most recently, a case of Scarlet Fever (what a way to put a damper on a vacation!). It's funny, though, how much clearer you can see when your head is <i>in the clouds</i>.<br /><br />As I've <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/01/on-what-ive-been-doing.html">stated previously</a>, I've been taking my time to carefully decide what my next venture would be. Well, I'm happy to say that, as of this week, I'm now working on a full-time basis with <a href="http://www.cloudsmith.com/">Cloudsmith Inc.</a>, as lead of product development. If you were at EclipseCon, you'll no doubt have heard of some of the great things Cloudsmith is doing. In case you haven't, you definitely will over the coming weeks.Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-3542916172995771772010-02-23T08:47:00.000-08:002010-02-23T09:01:36.800-08:00On Those Sexy Models...<p>This is the moment you all (OK, maybe not all) have been waiting for! Step aside, <a href="http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/2007/02/21/bring-back-the-netbeans-girls/">NetBeans girls</a>! Get ready for the new sensation! It's time for <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2010/02/on-catwalk.html">members of the Eclipse Modeling team</a> to take their rightful place among the unforgettable images of <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/">EclipseCon 2010</a>. And this is your chance to help make it happen!</p><p>We've done the <a href="http://eclipse-ecosystem.blogspot.com/2008/03/eclipsecon-my-head-is-this-big.html">bobble head thing</a>. Some suggested that this year we should do the <a href="http://aniszczyk.org/2010/01/12/barbie-as-a-computer-engineer/">Barbie thing</a>. But we've got something even better in mind.</p><p><b>The Challenge</b></p><p>Take images of prominent committers (see the <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/attachment.cgi?id=159949">attachment</a> to bug <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=303637">303637</a>) from Modeling projects and transform them into the models we know they're capable of being! For example, you could take their undeniably handsome heads and superimpose them on otherwise "superior" bodies.</p><p><b>The Rules</b></p><ul><li>Each entry must be in the form of an attachment to bug <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=303637">303637</a> (be sure to choose 'BigFile').</li><br /><li>Each entry must consist of altered versions of all ten original images (already <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/attachment.cgi?id=159949">attached</a> to the bug).</li><br /><li>The altered images must be in good taste - give your peers the respect they deserve.</li><br /><li>Entries must be submitted no later than March 17, 2010.</li></ul><p><b>The Reward</b></p><p>Our esteemed judges (the infamous <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">Ed Merks</a> and <a href="http://aniszczyk.org/">Chris Aniszczyk</a>) will decide on a winning image for each of the ten "models", to be revealed during the <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/sessions/sessions?id=1278">"Modeling Project Runway 2010" talk at EclipseCon 2010</a>. Winners (those who submitted one or more winning images) will be presented with some great prizes (e.g., Eclipse schwag) at the end of the runway session (or we'll mail it to you if you're not there... but we know you will be!).</p><p>Come on, Eclipse, let's show everyone how creative we can be!</p><p><br /></p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-63646468564084199802010-02-08T17:36:00.000-08:002010-02-08T17:47:49.052-08:00On the Catwalk...<p>Yeah, on the catwalk. We'll do our little turn on the catwalk. We've got models, you know what I mean, and we'll do our little turn on the catwalk.</p><p>Speaking of <a href="http://intellectualcramps.blogspot.com/2010/02/evangelism.html">evangelism</a>, we're trying something a little different this year to promote modeling at <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/">EclipseCon</a>. We're holding one session, <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/sessions/sessions?id=1278">"Modeling Project Runway 2010"</a>, where we'll be showing off new and noteworthy enhancements from ten of your favorite modeling projects. We've got a great lineup of presenters... lined up:</p><ul><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=cbrun">Cédric Brun</a> (M2M ATL)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=sefftinge">Sven Efftinge</a> (TMF Xtext)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=bkolb">Bernd Kolb</a> (EMF QTV)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=langlois">Benoît Langlois</a> (EMFT EGF)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=helindbe">Henrik Lindberg</a> (EMFT b3)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=fmadiot">Frédéric Madiot</a> (GMT MoDisco)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=jmusset">Jonathan Musset</a> (M2T Acceleo)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=rschnekenbu">Remi Schnekenburger</a> (MDT Papyrus)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=yvyang">Yves Yang</a> (PMF)</li><br /><li><a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/user.php?id=szarnekow">Sebastian Zarnekow</a> (EMFT MWE)</li></ul><br /><p>To add to the fun, we'll also be holding a photo contest over the coming weeks, to see who can best transform these fine gentlemen into visions of beauty befitting a proper modeling runway. Stay tuned for your chance to shape the face of modeling at Eclipse!</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-76998689093525806512010-01-08T12:23:00.000-08:002010-01-08T12:45:06.299-08:00On The Future of BPMN (Too)...<div><div>The future of BPMN (once <b>B</b>usiness <b>P</b>rocess <b>M</b>odeling <b>N</b>otation, now <b>B</b>usiness <b>P</b>rocess <b>M</b>odel <i>and</i> <b>N</b>otation) is finally here. Or is it? After much politicking, design by committee, and intellectual debate, the OMG (Object Management Group) finally adopted the long-anticipated <a href="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPMN/2.0/">BPMN 2.0 specification</a> last June (I know, old news). For those that are unfamiliar with the OMG Technology Adoption Process, when a specification is "adopted", it enters a finalization phase, during which vendors are expected to implement the specification and work together to iron out any of its kinks. Having gone through that process with the UML2 project at Eclipse, I have first-hand experience with the challenges of balancing specification finalization against the realities of shipping a product ... But suffice it to say that the age of tooling support for BPMN 2.0 is at hand.</div><div><br /></div><div>Eclipse has actually had a decent BPMN editor for a few years now, courtesy of the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/stp/">SOA Tools Platform project</a>. It's good enough that I know of at least two vendors that considered scrapping their internal efforts in favor of adopting the open source tooling. However, the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/bpmn/">BPMN Modeler</a> was never based on a standard metamodel, for various reasons, among them being the fact that, well, the OMG didn't really have one (unless you count <a href="http://www.omg.org/spec/BPDM/">BPDM</a>, but that's a whole other ball of wax) - until now. When I proposed the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/?project=bpmn2">BPMN2 subproject of MDT</a> back in late 2007, I was pleased to receive interest from the BPMN Modeler team in adopting the metamodel implementation, once available. Fast forward two years beyond project creation and six months beyond specification adoption and, unfortunately, as a result of changing priorities among the project's original participating companies (what else is new?) - none of which is participating in the project any more - we still don't have a metamodel implementation. In fact, I was on the verge of contemplating a termination review for the project when, unprompted, <a href="http://www.intalio.com/">Intalio</a> stepped forward with a willingness and ability to <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/ipzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3644">contribute</a> the metamodel implementation themselves! So, I'm pleased to say that, in the not too distant future, we'll have an open source implementation of the BPMN 2.0 metamodel at Eclipse!</div><div><br /></div><div>So, is that the end of the story? Well, not quite. To their credit, the OMG has started looking at the <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-separation-anxiety.html">long standing issue</a> of overlap between UML and BPMN (not to mention its other metamodels) and general lack of architectural cohension between its various modeling specifications (often referred to unaffectionately as the "metamuddle"). In fact, the OMG Architecture Board recently charted the “Architecture Ecosystem AB SIG” (or “AE SIG” for short), which is being chaired by Cory Casanave (Model Driven Solutions) and Jim Amsden (IBM). The mission of the AE SIG is to work with OMG domain and platform task forces, other relevant OMG SIGs (special interest groups), external entities, and related industry groups to facilitate the creation of a common architectural ecosystem (sound familiar?). This ecosystem will support the creation, analysis, integration, and exchange of information between modeling languages across different domains and viewpoints, from differing authorities. In particular, the need for business and enterprise level architectural viewpoints must be better integrated with the technical viewpoints that define systems to address enterprise needs. The AE SIG will focus on the capability to define and integrate languages and models in various viewpoints and support other groups that will focus on the specific viewpoints required for their specific domains. A set of viewpoints, supporting models, and supporting technologies will comprise the ecosystem.</div><div><br /></div><div>Recently, Cory issued a poll to prospective members of the AE SIG on the topic of integrating BPMN and UML. Details of the poll, reproduced here with permission from Cory (thanks!), are below.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><b><i>The Question</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div><i>There has been substantial discussion on the needs and issues with integrating UML and BPMN. Using this as a "test case" we would like to take a poll on what would be the best way for this integration to happen, strategically. In other words, if you could design this from the ground up, what would you do? </i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>The Options</i></b></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[1] They remain separate standards.</i></b><i> There is a BPMN standard with metamodel and a UML standard with metamodel. These standards are separate, intended for separate communities and tools. There is no relationship between these standards. This is, essentially, the current condition. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[2] BPMN is a UML profile with notation.</i></b><i> The separate metamodel for BPMN is deprecated and the formal specification of the BPMN notation is as a profile of UML, using the BPMN notation. The result looks and feels like BPMN as it is defined today, but it is defined “on top of” UML. This option would include any adjustments in the UML metamodel required to make such a profile well-formed. Another interpretation of this option could be that the BPMN metamodel is retained and there is also a UML profile for BPMN, presumably with a mapping between the two. However, the profile of BPMN should look the same in either case. (The latter may be the interpretation most people who voted for the option intended, so one should interpret this option to be silent on the question of retaining the separate BPMN metamodel or deprecating it.)</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[3] Create a unified model encompassing both.</i></b><i> A MOF or MOF-like metamodel is created that is the superset of the capabilities of UML and BPMN as unified conceptual system. This model would have the semantics of process layered in such a way that redundant concepts have identical metaclasses (perhaps with different notations) and similar concepts have like capabilities factored into common superclasses. The nature of this unified model would be much like the UML and BPMN models today, but including the concepts and specifications of both notations.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[4] Semantic models with UML and BPMN viewpoints.</i></b><i> This option pre-supposes more advanced meta modeling capabilities where an underlying semantic model (or set of models) is defined and then various “viewpoints” on the semantic model provides the specialization of those semantics for the needs of a particular kind of stakeholder. In this option both UML notations and BPMN notations share the same or related underlying semantic model and have an additional specification that specifies the specific structures required for BPMN and UML viewpoints. The difference between this and the prior option is that the viewpoints and semantic models are more loosely coupled. The models are constructed with the expectation that multiple languages and viewpoints will be constructed out of the semantic building blocks. The semantic building blocks are, likewise, loosely coupled. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[5] BPMN replaces UML activity diagrams.</i></b><i> Activity diagrams as currently defined in UML are deprecated and replaced with BPMN notations and semantics. BPMN essentially replaces a portion of UML behaviors. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[6] BPMN grows to make UML not required.</i></b><i> BPMN grows to encompass all the capabilities required for business-focused modeling and architecture, thus making any integration with UML redundant. BPMN may, some day, replace UML. </i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[7] BPMN and UML are separate models, mapped with QVT.</i></b><i> BPMN and UML are separate metamodels as they are now. A QVT mapping is specified between them such that a portion of a model in BPMN can be used to create a UML model and a portion of a UML model can be used to create a BPMN model. Since the notations are not the same, notations would not be mapped.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[8] There are ways to make links between them.</i></b><i> Both the BPMN and UML metamodels exist in parallel, much as they do now, but there are ways to “link” elements between them. This may require some additions to the OMG's metamodeling capability. The links would, for example, allow a behavior specified in the BPMN model to be the implementation of an operation on the UML side. There are, of course, questions and issues about how this is done and how the context and types on each side reference the other with some precision. This may require changes to both specifications to be less assertive about the types of elements used in associations.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>[9] Other.</i></b><i> Any option not reflected above.</i></div><div><br /></div><div><b><i>The Results</i></b></div></div><div><br /></div></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93fVRih7cBAA__KiVLaW7b6OaRkKRRdXe8M2DHZ2VXqxiTq6WhMxFMss92gyMGB7kLMAMa_Y2T3ZW90HOFWCu-om-6rBGh0M0Swfng9xbUxlJBox7Zqp0Iq_S24rKUQa35GHRd59o7x8O/s1600-h/Results.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 112px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh93fVRih7cBAA__KiVLaW7b6OaRkKRRdXe8M2DHZ2VXqxiTq6WhMxFMss92gyMGB7kLMAMa_Y2T3ZW90HOFWCu-om-6rBGh0M0Swfng9xbUxlJBox7Zqp0Iq_S24rKUQa35GHRd59o7x8O/s400/Results.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5424467482521510242" /></a><br /><div>From the results, it's clear that (for those that responded, anyway) the most popular option is to create yet another metamodel that encompasses both BPMN and UML (maybe UUML, the <i>Ultra</i> Unified Modeling Language?). How would you have voted? It's perhaps worth noting that the integration options (2, 3, 4, 5), when combined, are by far in the majority, so it seems that anything would be preferable to the status quo. Time will tell, I suppose. In the meantime, the MDT project will focus on providing another <i>de facto</i> reference implementation of an OMG specification. As always, if you're interested in helping, we'd love to hear from you.<br /><div><br /></div></div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-43701847429586300212010-01-06T07:55:00.000-08:002010-01-06T08:15:56.665-08:00On the E in EMF...<div>What do you think the <b>E</b> in <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/">EMF</a> really stands for? Of course, officially it stands for Eclipse, but given how useful the framework is, even independently of Eclipse, folks often question whether it should stand for something else. I'm sure many of you have heard suggestions that it should instead be <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/">"Ed"</a> (because, after all, it is Ed's framework, isn't it?) or perhaps "Excellent" (despite some <a href="http://eclipse-ecosystem.blogspot.com/2009/12/sucker-for-catchy-title.html">beliefs to the contrary</a>).</div><div><br /></div><div>Given the nature of enhancements that have been made over the past few years, and in light of more recent efforts to port the runtime to other platforms, like GWT and Android, I've come to think EMF should stand for <i>Extensible</i> Modeling Framework. Indeed, as of the recent M4 milestone of the Helios release, EMF is even more extensible, thanks to investments from two of my other clients. I worked with <a href="http://www.nexj.com/">NexJ Systems</a> to add support for delegation of constraint and invariant evaluation and with <a href="http://www.exxcellent.de/">eXXcellent solutions</a> to introduce similar delegation mechanisms for feature settings and operation invocation.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Validation Delegates</b></div><div><br /></div><div>The core validation framework in EMF previously provided a way to declare invariants and constraints on EMF-based implementations using annotated Ecore models. From the perspective of this mechanism, a <i>constraint</i> is a statement that must be valid at some point in time, whereas an <i>invariant</i> is an assertion that must always be true. However, one limitation of this mechanism was that invariants and constraints had to be implemented, by hand, in Java source code; there was no means of specifying the behavior of invariants or constraints in an alternative format (such as expressions in some language), nor was there a way to delegate their execution to an external mechanism (such as an expression evaluation engine). With this <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=255786">enhancement</a>, the core EMF validation framework allows the behavior of invariants and constraints to be defined via additional annotations on Ecore models, and for them to be executed, both from generated code and from dynamic models, via registered external expression engines. </div><div><br /></div><div>Execution of validation expressions can now be delegated to external expression engines via <i>validation delegates</i>. A validation delegate is a class that implements an interface defining methods that can be called by a validator to perform validation, i.e., evaluate constraints and invariants. Validation delegates can be registered against specific URIs in a registry which can then be queried by validators when performing validation. A global registry of validation delegates, which can be populated via an extension or programmatically via Java code, exists, but it is also possible to create new registries for use in specific contexts, e.g., in cases where it is desirable to override the default (global) validation delegate for a given URI during a particular diagnosis. In order to use a registered validation delegate within a given package, it needs to be declared as a value in an annotation details entry on the package. </div><div><br /></div><div>An invariant is implemented as a method on a class, defined on the model, and is considered a “stronger” statement about validity than a constraint. The behavior of an invariant can now be defined as a string expression in the details entry value of an annotation on the Ecore operation representing the invariant. In order to delegate evaluation of the expression to a registered validation delegate, the URI for this annotation needs to match one of the values in the details entry of an annotation on the nearest Ecore package. Evaluation of a properly annotated invariant is delegated to the corresponding registered delegate by a validator during a validation operation either statically (via generated code) or dynamically (via reflection) on a model instance.</div><div><br /></div><div>A constraint is implemented as a method on an external validator class, not on the model itself, and is considered a “weaker” statements about validity than an invariant. The behavior of a constraint can now be defined as a string expression in the details entry value of an annotation on the Ecore class or data type for which the constraint is defined. In order to delegate evaluation of the expression to a registered validation delegate, the URI for this annotation needs to match one of the values in the details entry of an annotation on the nearest Ecore package. Evaluation of a properly annotated constraint is delegated to the corresponding registered delegate by a validator during a validation operation either statically (via generated code) or dynamically (via reflection) on a model instance.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Feature Setting Delegates</b></div><div><br /></div><div>EMF previously provided a way to declare that features in EMF-based implementations are <i>derived</i> via metadata in Ecore models. From the perspective of EMF, a derived feature is a feature whose value is to be computed from other, related data. However, the computation of derived features had to be implemented, by hand, in Java source code; furthermore, there was no means of specifying the values of features (derived or not) in an alternative format (such as expressions in some language), nor was there a way to delegate their computation to an external mechanism (such as an expression engine). With this <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=216701">enhancement</a>, EMF allows the values of features to be defined via additional annotations on Ecore models, and for them to be computed, both from generated code and from dynamic models, via registered external expression engines. </div><div><br /></div><div>Computation of features can now be delegated to external expression engines via setting delegates. A setting delegate is a class that implements an interface defining methods that are called by the EMF runtime to access the feature’s value. Setting delegates can be registered against specific URIs in a registry which can then be queried when accessing the values of features. A global registry of setting delegates exists, which can be populated via an extension or programmatically via Java code. In order to use a registered setting delegate within a given package, it needs to be referenced as a value in an annotation details entry on the Ecore package. </div><div><br /></div><div>The computation of a feature can now be defined via an annotation on the Ecore structural feature. In order to delegate computation of the feature’s value to a registered setting delegate, the URI for this annotation needs to match one of the values in the details entry of an annotation on the containing class’s owning Ecore package. Evaluation of a properly annotated structural feature is delegated to the corresponding registered delegate when the feature’s value is accessed, either statically (via generated code) or dynamically (via reflection) on a model instance.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Operation Invocation Delegates</b></div><div><br /></div><div>EMF previously provided a way to declare operations in EMF-based implementations via metadata in Ecore models. From the perspective of EMF, an <i>operation</i> is a behavioral feature whose specification is beyond the scope of the framework. Although a mechanism already existed to specify the bodies of operations, in Java syntax, via annotations, the behaviors of operations generally had to be implemented by hand, in Java source code; there was no means of specifying the behaviors of operations in an alternative format (such as expressions in some language), nor was there a way to delegate their execution to an external mechanism (such as an expression evaluation engine). With this <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=255469">enhancement</a>, EMF allows the behaviors of operations to be defined via additional annotations on Ecore models, and for them to be executed, both from generated code and from dynamic models, via registered external expression engines. </div><div><br /></div><div>Execution of operations can now be delegated to external expression engines via <i>invocation delegates</i>. An invocation delegate is a class that implements an interface defining a method that is called by the EMF runtime to execute the operation’s behavior. Invocation delegates can be registered against specific URIs in a registry which can then be queried when executing the behaviors of operations. A global registry of invocation delegates exists, which can be populated via an extension or programmatically via Java code. In order to use a registered invocation delegate within a given package, it needs to be referenced as a value in an annotation details entry on the Ecore package. </div><div><br /></div><div>The behavior of an operation can now be defined via an annotation on the Ecore operation. In order to delegate execution of the operation’s behavior to a registered invocation delegate, the URI for this annotation needs to match one of the values in the details entry of an annotation on the containing class’s owning Ecore package. Execution of a properly annotated operation is delegated to the corresponding registered delegate when the operation’s behavior is invoked, either statically (via generated code) or dynamically (via reflection) on a model instance.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Details of these and other enhancements being made to EMF for the Helios release can be found on the project's <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/EMF/New_and_Noteworthy/Helios">New and Noteworthy</a> page. I'll also be covering the new extensibility mechanisms described above as part of a <a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/view_talk.php?id=1463">proposed tutorial</a> at <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/">EclipseCon 2010</a> (assuming the submission is accepted). Hope to see you there!</div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-38879478724860618732010-01-05T07:08:00.000-08:002010-01-05T07:25:01.781-08:00On What I've Been Doing...<p>At the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_DemoCamps_November_2009/Ottawa">Eclipse DemoCamp in Ottawa</a> a few weeks ago, someone mentioned to me that it's not entirely obvious from my blog what I've been up to lately. So, in the spirit of blogging more about what I do than what I think, I figured I ought to rectify the situation, perception being reality and all.</p><p>When suddenly faced with <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-falling.html">freedom</a> last June, I thought I'd take some time to carefully decide what my next venture would be. In the meantime, started my own consulting company, focused on making my clients successful with open source. Weeks turned into months and, well, I'm still "deciding". To date, I've been involved in several client projects, some related to Eclipse and some in other areas (but still using Eclipse tooling!). I'll blog about each of them in my "spare" time over the coming days, in no particular order, starting with <a href="http://www.zeligsoft.com/">Zeligsoft</a>.</p><p>I worked with Zeligsoft to prepare some project proposals for one of their clients and then represented them at <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/">Eclipse Summit Europe</a> in Ludwigsburg. They are taking a serious look at the feasibility of building an open source, industrial strength model based engineering environment using Eclipse technology. While at the Summit, I presented a <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/sessions?id=1027">long talk</a> with Raphael Faodou and Patrick Tessier entitled "Papyrus: Advent of an Open Source IME at Eclipse". We were stuck in a room with only 36 chairs and ended up with nearly 60 people in attendance. Our message seemed to resonate very well and many people seemed quite interested in, and impressed with, what's being done in <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/?project=papyrus">Papyrus</a>.</p><p>Of particular note in <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-ludwigsburg.html">Ludwigsburg</a> was evidence of a growing interest in an open source modeling workbench at Eclipse. The Birds of a Feather (BoF) session I held on that subject on the Wednesday night was also very well attended; it was scheduled for only one hour, but after over two hours in a stuffy room, nobody had left. We had a good discussion about the various efforts that are either already underway or in the works, followed by some disagreement about how best to proceed, i.e., this project vs. that project vs. a working group vs. an external consortium. Finally, <a href="http://www.mftech.org/blog/index.php">Martin Fluegge</a>, from <a href="http://www.mftech.org/dawn/">the Dawn project</a>, gave a <a href="http://www.mftech.org/dawn/screencasts.html">demo</a> of some really cool technology for collaborating on diagrams over the Web (without <a href="http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/15618">using Google Wave</a>).</p><p>One initiative that I became aware of during the Summit was Sphinx, an emerging project proposal to create a generic DSL workbench at Eclipse. There was much overlap between what was being proposed in Sphinx and what the backbone in Papyrus is intended to be. As a result, we've started looking at extracting the Papyrus backbone and combining it with what is being contributed in Sphinx, working together as one team. The proposed project lead, Stephan Eberle, is looking for feedback and is keenly interested collaborating with other parties. Might you be interested in participating?</p><p>In November, I delivered an <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_Modeling_Day/Session_Abstracts_Toronto#Papyrus:_Advent_of_an_Open_Source_IME_at_Eclipse">updated version of the Papyrus talk</a> at the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_Modeling_Day#Toronto">Eclipse Modeling Day in Toronto</a> (which was also quite successful), and have submitted two proposals for related talks at <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/2010/">EclipseCon 2010 in March</a>. The <a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/view_talk.php?id=1385">first</a> would be another update to the talk I presented at the Summit and the Modeling Day. For the second, I'm collaborating with Stephan Eberle to take a look at <a href="https://www.eclipsecon.org/submissions/2010/view_talk.php?id=1315">"The Twenty Modeling Things"</a>, i.e., essential services that might make up a modeling workbench at Eclipse. If either of these is of interest to you, why not express your support by adding a comment to the submission(s)?</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-61945844725575138592010-01-04T12:25:00.000-08:002010-01-05T14:29:34.101-08:00On Grievances...<p><a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-last-year-of-ohties.html">A year ago</a>, I started an annual tradition of creating a <a href="http://www.wordle.net/">wordle</a> of my blog, so here is this year's visual.</p><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxHRPXWVIUAv2xZbva0LbPqEHVQ2tWuJuz7yuFko57AK7WIWyzqYgTj_H26w2VZR7m5RTPNuteuSBcwhG5p4ngz7aQwKY1OQRuXmiAdsUQdK8_xL-T0zzHtTZ87Bb6rHMRDp_jaMlHPSPd/s1600-h/4January2010.png"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 237px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxHRPXWVIUAv2xZbva0LbPqEHVQ2tWuJuz7yuFko57AK7WIWyzqYgTj_H26w2VZR7m5RTPNuteuSBcwhG5p4ngz7aQwKY1OQRuXmiAdsUQdK8_xL-T0zzHtTZ87Bb6rHMRDp_jaMlHPSPd/s400/4January2010.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5422983846462078482" /></a><br /><p>Comparing it with the one from last year, not a lot appears to have changed, at least on the surface - still a lot of Eclipse and modeling. By contrast, this New Year will no doubt bring a lot of change.</p><p>Last week I tweeted about ten things from 2009 that I hope to do without in 2010. I thought it would be fitting to start the year by posting them here so that I can reflect on each item in more detail.</p><b>10. Corporate Politics</b><br /><p>I've never been a fan of office politics, but having worked closely with executive teams over the past few years, I've had more than my fill for a while. So far, working independently has been a welcome breath of fresh air.</p><b>9. OS Upgrades</b><br /><p>Somehow I allowed myself to get sucked into the hype of Snow Leopard and jumped the gun. The outcome of my various installation attempts was probably best summed up by <a href="http://mosspuppet.wordpress.com/">Mosspuppet</a> in his <a href="http://mosspuppet.wordpress.com/2009/08/27/walt-mossberg-reviews-snow-leopard/">video review</a>. Luckily, I had the foresight to back everything up with my Time Capsule ahead of time, so all was not lost. I was amused, though, upon taking the media back to the Apple store for a refund, at the salesperson's suggestion that I try another copy, implying that somehow my copy may have been defective. Huh? Oh, and Windows 7? <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3h6kOLYGtI">I don't think so</a>.</p><b>8. Piracy</b><br /><p>I had to laugh when more than one person replied to this one with a suggestion that I avoid boating in Somalia. I had to clarify that I was referring to things more torrent-related. Yes, I believe in open source and I do feel that the concept of ownership is evolving rapidly in response to the new economy, but I refuse to use my altruistic beliefs as a justification for pirating content (movies, music, games, software, etc.). I guess that means I'll be waiting to see the second season of True Blood until it's finally (if ever!) released on DVD. Assuming I can convince my wife to wait. ;)</p><b>7. Overdue Invoices</b><br /><p>One of the hardest things to get used to about being a freelancer (for me) is cash flow (or lack thereof). On more than one occasion I found myself waiting longer than I should have for invoices to be paid. In the future, I'll consider front-loading my engagements or building interest charges into the contract terms.</p><b>6. Protracted Renovations</b><br /><p>We hired a contractor for what we were told would be a three week project which ended up taking over three months. The irony was that we went with a contractor in the interest of expediency, thinking that it would take us much longer to do it ourselves. Next time, we'll think twice.</p><b>5. Airline Status</b><br /><p>I achieved airline status for the second year in a row. To me, that's a indication that I've been traveling too much. Luckily, I've had much fewer reasons to travel since becoming an independent, so I doubt I'll achieve status next year.</p><b>4. Censorship</b><br /><p>This is my blog. The thoughts and opinions expressed on it are, and always have been, my own, and I intend to keep it that way. I'll not again consider changing the content of any of my posts to placate any of its readers.</p><b>3. Staycations</b><br /><p>Our plan for summer vacation last year was to spend a few weeks at a fractional ownership cottage we were buying. But, the economy took its inevitable toll on that venture, and we wound up staying around home for a summer "stay"cation. Unfortunately, though, I was too busy dealing with my new employment situation to relax, so it wasn't much like a vacation at all. The past couple of weeks home with the kids have reminded me what's most important in life, so we'll be taking that vacation this coming summer whether we can afford to or not!</p><b>2. Legal Fees</b><br /><p>Lawyers are there to protect you when you need them, but ultimately they're out to make a living too. One of the tidbits from the <a href="http://www.leadtowin.ca/">Lead to Win</a> program that really resonated with me was the notion that the law is often argued on the basis of principal, not principle. In any case, I plan to keep situations (real estate, business, or otherwise) where I need a lawyer to a minimum.</p><b>1. Cancer</b><br /><p>Some are shocked by my openness about the details of my personal life, and <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-lighter-loads.html">in particular</a> my mother's recent battle with breast cancer. Personally, I've been surprised by the number of people I know that have since shared details with me about encounters with the disease in their lives. I'm not sure why we don't talk more openly about things like this, but we should. I'm happy to say that my mother's treatments (chemotherapy and radiation) were a success (as far as we can tell) and she's well on her way to getting back on top of her life again (not that she ever really faltered). As of today, I start training again for the <a href="http://ot10.endcancer.ca/site/PageServer?pagename=ot10_homepage">Weekend to End Women's Cancers</a> in Ottawa this coming June. <a href="http://www.endcancer.ca/site/TR?px=2924307&fr_id=1370&pg=personal">Donations</a> are, of course, welcome and appreciated!</p><p>Here's to 2010 and all the changes (for the better) that it will bring!</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-40785472870839203332009-12-07T07:25:00.000-08:002009-12-07T07:39:01.230-08:00On Leadership...<p>Among other things, last week's <a href="http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Linux-and-Open-Source/Is-Eclipse-an-Open-Source-Community-or-Trade-Association-895397/">exchange on The Planet</a> ought to be a reminder to all of us of how hard good leadership is to come by. I'm sure you've heard the term "thought leader", but it's always been a bit of an oxymoron to me. Ideas are cheap, and thinking can often get you into trouble (I should know, I've <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-falling.html">been there</a>). Yes, actions do speak louder than words, so a more appropriate term for someone who displays true leadership, in my mind, would be "action leader" or, even better, "action hero". It's ironic that use of the latter isn't more prevalent in our industry. Forget being a rock star, I want to be an action hero.</p><p>When I think (danger, Will Robinson!) about it, it's the posts from people <b>doing</b> amazing things at Eclipse that tend to earn more of my respect. So, rather than accusing <a href="http://eclipse-projects.blogspot.com/2009/11/its-trade-association.html">anyone</a> of biting the hand that feeds or questioning whether <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/mike/2009/11/30/dear-bjorn-go-away/">others</a> have poisoned the well, I'm looking to the action heros at Eclipse to continue doing such a stellar job of leading by example. <i>Indeed</i>, it is they, and others like them, who, if anyone, will keep our ecosystem from collapsing under the weight of our collective self-importance. In truth AND in deed.</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-40694100982178371542009-11-05T07:02:00.000-08:002009-11-05T07:11:34.156-08:00On Momentum...<p>Despite <a href="http://thegordian.blogspot.com/2009/11/less-emf.html">rumors</a> of a resistance movement (ha!), the momentum of modeling at Eclipse continues to build, as attested by last week's <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/">summit</a>. By all accounts the various <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2009/10/eclipse-summit-europe-2009-tutorials.html">tutorials</a>, <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2009/10/eclipse-summit-europe-2009-day-of-talks.html">presentations</a>, and <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2009/10/eclipse-summit-europe-2009-final-day.html">discussions</a> about modeling were quite productive. I'll be blogging in more detail about the BoF and <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/sessions?id=1027">long talk</a> that I helped deliver at ESE in the coming days, but before I do I wanted to bring your attention to two other upcoming events that may be of interest to modelers.</p><p>In just under two weeks, Eclipse will be hosting <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse_Modeling_Day">"Modeling Days"</a> in New York and Toronto. The line-up of presenters is terrific, and in case you missed my <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/kenn.hussey/papyrus-advent-of-an-open-source-ime-at-eclipse">presentation on Papyrus</a> in <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-ludwigsburg.html">Ludwigsburg</a>, I'll be delivering (an updated version of) it at the Toronto Modeling Day on Wednesday, November 18. <a href="eclipse_modeling_toronto@eclipse.org">Registration</a> is free, so there's no excuse for missing this opportunity to interact with thought leaders in the Eclipse Modeling community.</p><p>I <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-going-forth-to-past.html">alluded</a> to the second event some time ago, but now it's official - another <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-fake-ed-merks.html">Eclipse/OMG Symposium</a> is being held, this time at the <a href="http://www.omg.org/news/schedule/upcoming.htm">OMG Technical Meeting</a> in Minnesota, Minneapolis on June 23, 2010. The <a href="http://www.omg.org/news/meetings/tc/mn/special-events/Eclipse.htm">call for participation</a> is already open, so it's not too early to consider submitting a proposal and making your contribution to the joint future of open source and open specifications.</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-48405001350875257262009-11-02T10:26:00.000-08:002009-11-02T10:37:24.866-08:00On the Mo...<p>Having witnessed, <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-lighter-loads.html">first-hand</a>, the transformative effect that hair (or absence thereof) can have on our personal lives, I've decided to grow some hair, this time for a cause. That's right, it's <a href="http://ca.movember.com/">Movember</a> and I've joined the <a href="http://blog.ianbull.com/2009/11/mo-mo-mo-movember.html">Eclipse Mommitters</a> in their effort to raise money to "help change the face of men's health". I'll be posting pictures of my progress over the next few weeks on my <a href="http://ca.movember.com/mospace/231899">"Mo Space" (personal page)</a>. Check it out, consider making a <a href="https://www.movember.com/ca/donate/your-details/team_id/44681/">donation</a> to our team, and think about how you could do your part to help fight prostate cancer.</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-40111105731965224692009-10-05T12:45:00.000-07:002009-10-05T12:55:03.414-07:00On Big "M" Modeling...<p><a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/10/on-auspicious-dates.html">Speaking</a> of <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/">Wayne</a>, I, too, was recently interviewed by a German magazine, <a href="http://it-republik.de/jaxenter/">JAXenter</a>. Following his <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2009/08/10/wir-werden-e4-in-helios-wiedersehen-part-one/">example</a>, I thought I'd post the English translation of the <a href="http://it-republik.de/jaxenter/news/Big-M-Modeling-mit-Eclipse-MDT-050299.html">interview</a> for the benefit of those (like me) that can't read German. It's a little dated (especially since our Helios plan is now in place and we've already started development), but hey, better late than never, right? ;)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Can you describe the Eclipse MDT Project in a few words?</b></p><p>The Model Development Tools (<a href="http://eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/">MDT</a>) project focuses on big "M" modeling within the Eclipse Modeling project. Its purpose is to provide implementations of industry standard metamodels and exemplary tools for developing models based on those metamodels.</p><p><b>Can you give a typical use case for the project?</b></p><p>Developers use MDT as a framework for building professional-grade modeling tools based on industry standard languages such as Unified Modeling Language (UML), Object Constraint Language (OCL), and XML Schema Definition (XSD), among others. End users use MDT's exemplary tooling (currently provided by the UML2 Tools and Papyrus components) to develop models based on those languages.</p><p><b>What's new in the Galileo Version of MDT?</b></p><p>Four of the nine components in MDT released as part of Galileo. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/OCL/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">OCL 1.3</a> saw the addition of finer-grained control over debug tracing, support for big numbers, and an extensible type checking mechanism. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/UML2/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">UML2 3.0</a> subscribed to the <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2009/01/emf-ultra-slim-diet.html"><span style="text-decoration: underline ; color:#2b5bb7;">EMF "ultra-slim diet</span></a>", migrated to the latest released version of the <a href="http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/08-05-05.pdf">UML specification</a> (2.2), and made some extensibility enhancements in the area of profiles. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/UML2Tools/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">UML2 Tools 0.9</a> includes enhanced support for working with profiles and stereotypes, vastly improved look and feel, provisional support for sequence and timing diagrams, and the ability to specify which elements are included (synchronized) when creating a class diagram. Finally, <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/XSD/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">XSD 2.5</a> added support for using an ecore:nsURI attribute on a schema element to specify the namespace URI for a schema without a target namespace.</p><p><b>Where do you see the MDT Project in one year? How will the project evolve after Galileo?</b></p><p>We have yet to prepare our plans for the next major release of MDT (dubbed "Helios"), but I can give you an idea of what I'd like to see happen. First, I'd like to see revival of ODM (Ontology Definition Metamodel) support in MDT (in fact, we already have a proposal), especially given the resurgence of interest in RDF (Resource Definition Framework) in the industry of late (e.g. Linked Data). I also anticipate compliance with the latest releases of industry specifications, particularly BPMN, OCL, and XSD. Integration of EMF-based support for things like searching, comparing, and indexing of models in our end-user tooling should also be a priority. Finally, I hope to see some innovation in modeling tooling and techniques, including support for such things as facet-based metamodels, task-focused tools, and collaborative design.</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-79228963354741600712009-10-01T11:49:00.000-07:002009-10-01T11:56:39.628-07:00On Auspicious Dates...<p>I was reminded recently, while volunteering as part of my son's Beaver colony, of the Scout Motto: "Be prepared". Of course, a good way to be prepared is to have a plan. <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/">Wayne</a> has done a great job this year of reminding project leads, both on the mailing lists and on his <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/wayne/2009/09/17/if-you-plan-to-plan-you-fail-to-fail/">blog</a>, of their responsibility to get their project plans in place in time for yesterday's deadline. My only question is, if you plan to fail and you fail, have you failed or succeeded?</p><p>In any case, the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.php?projectid=modeling.mdt">MDT plan for the Helios coordinated release</a> is now finally in place... more or less. Looking at the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Helios">release schedule</a>, I was amused by the significance of some of the milestone dates for "+3" projects (of which MDT is one). M3 is on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remembrance_Day">Remembrance Day</a>, M6 is on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Patrick's_Day">St. Patrick's Day</a>, and M7 is on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_Mayo">Cinco de Mayo</a>. I'm not sure whether that's a good sign or a bad one, but either way, I'm looking forward to an exciting cycle of development at Eclipse!</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-39730180955187771642009-09-15T07:12:00.000-07:002009-09-15T07:20:57.623-07:00On Going Forth to the Past...<p>And so it would seem that, while there are <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-your-game-face.html">things</a>, both personal and professional, that we must let go of in life, there are some we may choose not to. <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/09/on-letting-go.html">Open source</a> is one such thing for me, and open specifications are another. To that end, I'm happy to say that I was recently appointed representative of the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/">Eclipse Foundation</a> at the <a href="http://www.omg.org/">Object Management Group</a>. This means that, while I won't be resuming all of my <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-participation.html">former responsibilities</a> at the OMG, I am once again able to actively participate in <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-efforts-of-few.html">shaping</a> the joint future of these two organizations.</p><p>I'm currently working on organizing a follow-up to the <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/04/on-fake-ed-merks.html">symposia</a> that were held back in 2008 (I'll post more information on that as it becomes available). Of course, before hosting such an event, I want to ensure that steps have been taken to address at least some of the important issues that were identified at the first symposia. At this point, I think the intellectual property relationship between Eclipse projects and OMG specifications is more clear than it was before. To further preserve this lineage, Eclipse is participating in the <a href="http://www.omg.org/docs/omg/08-06-03.odt">OMG's IPR policy</a> review process on an ongoing basis.</p><p>As for a better means of tracking issues at the OMG, work has begun to migrate the large database of OMG issues, along with their associated triage processes, to Bugzilla. With any luck, it should soon be possible to submit and track an issue against an OMG specification as a Bugzilla record and, ideally (longer term), be able to do so from within a tool that is based on that specification (e.g., by using Mylyn tasks with contexts based on models). If you're interested in seeing this <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/MST">happen</a>, or perhaps even in helping bring it to fruition, I'd love to hear about it!</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-37317156085173615372009-09-14T12:32:00.000-07:002009-09-14T13:40:24.540-07:00On Letting Go...<p>Woah, it's been quite a while since my last entry. While my new life as <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-vanillogging.html">jetsam</a> has taught me a whole new meaning to the expression "the truth will set you free", I've been focusing more on figuring out what to do with my freedom rather than dwelling on how I earned it. I've been exploring a number of alternatives over the past couple of months, some of which I'll be blogging about in the near future.</p><p>One thing I know I'll be doing for sure is continuing my commitment to open (but not <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/01/on-cost-of-free.html">free</a>!) source and, of course, <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-renaming-eclipse.html">Eclipse</a>. In that vein, I'm thrilled that my long talk proposal for <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/">Eclipse Summit Europe</a>, entitled <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/sessions?id=1027">"Papyrus: Advent of an Open Source IME at Eclipse"</a>, which I co-submitted with Raphael Faudou, Patrick Tessier, and Cedric Dumoulin, has been accepted. I finally completed my registration this morning (after overcoming some browser obstacles) and am looking forward to being in <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/11/on-ludwigsburg.html">Ludwigsburg again</a> this October. I'm particularly stoked about who one of the keynote speakers is this year. I had the distinct privilege of spending time with <a href="http://www.eclipsecon.org/summiteurope2009/sessions?id=1045">Tony Bailetti</a> this summer as part of the <a href="http://www.leadtowin.ca/">Lead to Win</a> program (more on that later), so I know first-hand that we're in for a treat. This year's summit is shaping up to be a dandy; I hope to see you there!</p>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-88174689064629153272009-07-06T08:49:00.000-07:002009-07-06T09:21:26.783-07:00On Lighter Loads...<div>What are the odds that my closest friend and I, he in the hardware industry and I, in software, would both lose our jobs during the very same week? Talk about <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-cadences.html">s</a><a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-cadences.html">ynchronicity</a>! As it happens, full-time employment wasn't the only thing that we shed this past week. My mother recently lost all of her hair as a result of the chemotherapy treatment she is undergoing for <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-verge.html">breast cancer</a>, so the two of us decided to shave our heads as a gesture of solidarity.</div><div><br /></div><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9JVLz_VhvnMDkrJQeQyrFVSSJ0of9x_ZTdal_acKR_hvOoKK5TZrgkh4OksgMFY_6phVsyfMY14uMTiuLJgeRVnqGwePfarLZIXF6Gra822s-bI7wpEb7SuqR_5jJZL-8FS0c9pNtcusZ/s400/IMG_3731.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5355376703735927666" /></div><div><br /></div><div>I wasn't kidding when I said that I was facing this <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/07/on-falling.html">transition</a> with an open mind! Thanks to all of you that have shared your best wishes for my future endeavors. Having offloaded the weight of the corporate world... and now my hair, I feel more invigorated than ever to take on my next challenge. Stay tuned for details.</div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-62933942297748497262009-07-01T14:48:00.000-07:002009-07-01T15:22:01.826-07:00On Falling...<div>It's been just under two years now since I left the mother ship for an <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-triads.html">opportunity</a> with Embarcadero, and I've seldom looked back... until today. On this day, when most other Canadians are celebrating the birth of our great nation and the freedom it affords its citizens, I'm faced with commemorating a new found freedom of my own. I've been exiled from <a href="http://www.escapefromcubiclenation.com/">Cubicle Nation</a>.</div><br /><div>This isn't exactly the kind of change I had in mind when I wrote my last <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-galileo.html">blog entry</a>, but I'm committed to facing it with an open mind (seeing as I have no choice). I don't know what I'll be doing for income yet (if you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them), but in the meantime I thought it would be an apt occasion to take another <a href="http://www.wordle.net/">wordle</a> snapshot of my blog (exactly six months after <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/01/on-last-year-of-ohties.html">the last one</a>).</div><br /><div><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 211px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnyD8dls5KAKtZrlzOJyQysT7HEn8tBRmIdy2Ix-XXwx1MqEzVGzRu9VT0mp8SRxMJM3a_EgtkaN8rWtI_1yqC_5eeroW2P1P_34ztGHv927SusbGSq3YCzw0Bl-ED84dwsy8zJSRfP6dd/s400/1July2009.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5353612174733690626" /></div><br /><div>So far, 2009 has been a <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/04/on-your-game-face.html">challenging year</a>. But, a friend of mine told me recently that a kick in the pants is still a step forward, and I'm inclined to agree. I really should be seeing this as more of a <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-beginnings-and-ends.html">beginning than an end</a>, and I'm sure that once I've landed with two feet firmly planted on my next venture, this will be obvious in hindsight. One thing is for certain, though. I'll not be looking back again.</div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-4237587650360102009-06-24T14:50:00.000-07:002009-06-25T16:19:20.912-07:00On Galileo...<div>And so, the <a href="http://dev.eclipse.org/blogs/mike/2009/06/24/releasing-galileo/">big day</a> is here. I'd like to say a big "thank you" to the members of the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/">Model Development Tools (MDT)</a> <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/modeling/mdt/project-info/team.php">development team</a> that made this release possible. This past release cycle has been an eventful one, with committers and components both coming and going. I'm proud of what we accomplished as a team (given the challenges we faced) and especially of the fact that MDT is listed as the third most popular project on the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/">Eclipse Downloads page</a>, behind <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/pdt/">PDT</a> and <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/">Web Tools</a>. A true testament to the value that modeling tools bring to the Eclipse ecosystem!</div><div><br /></div><div>So, what's new in this release of MDT? Four of the now nine components in MDT released today as part of Galileo. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/OCL/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">OCL 1.3</a> saw the addition of finer-grained control over debug tracing, support for big numbers, and an extensible type checking mechanism. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/UML2/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">UML2 3.0</a> subscribed to the <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2009/01/emf-ultra-slim-diet.html">EMF ultra-slim diet</a>, migrated to the latest released version of the <a href="http://www.omg.org/docs/ptc/08-05-05.pdf">UML specification</a> (2.2), and made some extensibility enhancements in the area of profiles. <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/UML2Tools/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">UML2 Tools 0.9</a> includes enhanced support for working with profiles and stereotypes, vastly improved look and feel, provisional support for sequence and timing diagrams, and (at long last!) the ability to specify which elements are included (synchronized) when creating a class diagram. Finally, <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/XSD/New_and_Noteworthy/Galileo">XSD 2.5</a> added support for using an ecore:nsURI attribute on a schema element to specify the namespace URI for a schema without a target namespace.</div><div><br /></div><div>But of course, that's not the whole story behind what took place this past year. Two components (<a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT-EODM">EODM</a> and <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT-OCLTools">OCL Tools</a>) were <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/10/on-beginnings-and-ends.html">terminated</a> and two new ones were created (<a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/Papyrus">Papyrus</a> and <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/MDT/MST">MST</a>). We also received a number of project proposals, some of which may yet see the light of day. We were sad to see the departure of some of our past contributors (most notably, committer emeritus <a href="http://give-a-damus.blogspot.com/">Christian Damus</a>, former lead of the OCL component) but heartily welcomed the many new ones that arrived! If <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-change.html">change</a> is an indication of <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-renaming-eclipse.html">healthy progress</a> (and I believe it is) I'm happy to say that the MDT mini-ecosystem is alive and well. Here's to a another successful release and the changes that the future is sure to bring!<br /></div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-6848195299438517272009-06-19T07:34:00.000-07:002009-06-19T07:57:02.147-07:00On Renaming Eclipse...<div>I was reminded yet again this week, by a self-proclaimed analyst, that <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/03/on-death-of-eclipse-and-modeling.html">Eclipse is dead</a>. I sure hope that's true. I mean, I'd like to think that what we have come to know Eclipse to be dies every day and becomes something different (and better!) the next day. That's the nature of continuous <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/05/on-bodies-at-rest.html">innovation</a>. Otherwise, what we're stuck with is the <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2008/08/on-status-quo.html">status quo</a>, and that's not going to get anyone much of anywhere.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was reading an <a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/what-makes-a-community/">entry</a> in <a href="http://chrisguillebeau.com/3x5/">Chris Guillebeau's blog</a> the other day, and it dawned on me why Eclipse is at risk of missing the next <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-letter-w.html">wave</a> of innovation - it no longer has a well-defined enemy. Remember that classic Weird Al song? "I know Darth Vader's really got you annoyed, but remember if you kill him then you'll be unemployed". The battle with that <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tecosystems/~3/ZkPVzw0DHCo/">eternal yellow sphere</a> was won some time ago, and it seems unlikely that the other "evil empire" will ever amass an open source ecosystem quite as impressive as the one Eclipse has. So what's left that's worth fighting for? United we stand, divided we focus on squeezing every last possible incremental improvement out of our existing "value added" products. </div><div><br /></div><div>But fear not, all is not lost! The <a href="http://ed-merks.blogspot.com/2008/08/engulf-and-devour.html">Empire</a> is striking back, albeit under a <a href="http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2009/03/in-google-we-trust.html">different guise</a>. Perhaps Eclipse should be renamed to properly reflect what our new war cry ought to be. How about "Dissonance"? Then again, they say that if you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em. This time 'round I'm thinking that's not such a bad idea... and I'm happy to see that <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=280347">efforts</a> have already begun in that direction. Yeah, come to think of it, maybe "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resonance">Resonance</a>" is a better name, especially given <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_Galilei">who</a> discovered the phenomenon and the <a href="http://wiki.eclipse.org/Galileo">milestone</a> that Eclipse is about to to achieve next week. ;)</div><div><br /></div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5620932762413494076.post-83407460883317067292009-06-08T17:23:00.000-07:002009-06-08T17:30:44.762-07:00On Cadences...<div><a href="http://www.endcancer.ca/goto/Kenn.Hussey">The Weekend to End Breast Cancer</a>. It ain't just for ladies anymore (or at least is shouldn't be). I was one of a handful of men among over a thousand women that walked 60 kilometers this past weekend and raised over two million dollars for cancer research in the process. I was humbled by the many examples of courage and hope that I witnessed. There was a man who has done the walk 30 times and who, last year (or so I am told), wheeled his deceased wife's empty wheelchair for two days. There was a cancer survivor who pushed her walker faster than many of us could walk unaided. There were women in very late stages of pregnancy, one of whom was having contractions but refused to see her midwife to deliver her baby until she had finished walking for the day. There were several who carried empty walking shoes once worn by women whose journey has come prematurely to an end.</div><div><br /></div><div>I want to thank the four women, one of them a cancer survivor, who were gracious enough to allow me to walk with them on the second day. One of the most powerful moments, for me, occurred less than five kilometers from the finish line when the route diverged from the sidewalk onto a path of crushed gravel. We had been walking nearly the whole day together, but only just then noticed that our cadences were perfectly in sync. It was a true testament to what <a href="http://kenn-hussey.blogspot.com/2009/06/on-letter-w.html">shared vision</a> is all about. Like all of the other participants, we were there for similar goals, but there's no doubt in my mind that what we were able to accomplish together was more than any of us could have done on our own. We were among the first forty or so to finish, and I'll not forget the feeling any time soon.</div><div><br /></div>Kenn Husseyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15584300551729300431noreply@blogger.com1