On Where We're Using EMF...

Where are you using the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)? I've blogged recently about how perhaps the "E" in EMF ought to stand for Extensibility. 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.

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.

With Helios M7, 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'.

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.

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.).

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 New and Noteworthy page for Helios to help you get started with developing EMF-based applications for GWT!

On 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 MDT Papyrus project is about to provide some new eye candy for its users. The project already has an impressive logo, but now they've made some fresh new icons 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!

On Noteworthy Pairs...

Phew. I've finally caught up after the frenzied activity of the past few weeks and posted a New and Noteworthy entry for the M6 milestone of EMF. If you attended the EMF tutorial or RAP BoF at EclipseCon, or perhaps saw Ben's blog post (gotta love the title of that one!), you're probably already aware of a great new enhancement that was added to EMF, thanks to generous sponsorship from another one of my clients.

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 New and Noteworthy page for the Helios release of EMF. Thanks again to Ed and Ben for their help in making this happen in time for M6!

On Architecture...

As you may have already gathered from Kim's blog (yes, we're both from the same province and home town, and no, the tidal bore is not a pig), I've recently been appointed to the Eclipse Architecture Council. It's an honor to be in the company of such great technical leaders, especially my Cloudsmith colleagues, two of whom (Thomas and Ed) are on the council as well.

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 mentioned before, 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 Amalgam and the recently proposed Sphinx project certainly help, but there's a lot more that could be done.

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 Slideshare or via the EclipseCon session page. 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?

On Looking Up...

It's been a while since I last blogged, 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, EclipseCon 2010, 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 in the clouds.

As I've stated previously, 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 Cloudsmith Inc., 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.

On Those Sexy Models...

This is the moment you all (OK, maybe not all) have been waiting for! Step aside, NetBeans girls! Get ready for the new sensation! It's time for members of the Eclipse Modeling team to take their rightful place among the unforgettable images of EclipseCon 2010. And this is your chance to help make it happen!

We've done the bobble head thing. Some suggested that this year we should do the Barbie thing. But we've got something even better in mind.

The Challenge

Take images of prominent committers (see the attachment to bug 303637) 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.

The Rules

• Each entry must be in the form of an attachment to bug 303637 (be sure to choose 'BigFile').


• Each entry must consist of altered versions of all ten original images (already attached to the bug).


• The altered images must be in good taste - give your peers the respect they deserve.


• Entries must be submitted no later than March 17, 2010.

The Reward

Our esteemed judges (the infamous Ed Merks and Chris Aniszczyk) will decide on a winning image for each of the ten "models", to be revealed during the "Modeling Project Runway 2010" talk at EclipseCon 2010. 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!).

Come on, Eclipse, let's show everyone how creative we can be!

On the Catwalk...

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.

Speaking of evangelism, we're trying something a little different this year to promote modeling at EclipseCon. We're holding one session, "Modeling Project Runway 2010", 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:

• Cédric Brun (M2M ATL)


• Sven Efftinge (TMF Xtext)


• Bernd Kolb (EMF QTV)


• Benoît Langlois (EMFT EGF)


• Henrik Lindberg (EMFT b3)


• Frédéric Madiot (GMT MoDisco)


• Jonathan Musset (M2T Acceleo)


• Remi Schnekenburger (MDT Papyrus)


• Yves Yang (PMF)


• Sebastian Zarnekow (EMFT MWE)

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!