Eclipse RCP application in jruby

2
votes

I'm trying to write an Eclipse rcp application using only jruby, or at least with only the strictly necessary amount of java. As only a few lines of pure ruby code will give you a basic SWT application, I was hoping, that writing an rcp application in jruby should boil down to implementing a few classes, like IApplication, and so on... Disclaimer: I have been working with (j)ruby for several years but have almost no java or rcp experience for that matter.

What seems viable is to stick with the template generated by Eclipse and call ruby classes from there. However: is it possible to use pure ruby?

There seems to be some magic that glues all the classes of an rcp application together. A good deal of that magic probably resides in plugin.xml in the root directory of an rcp project. However, when I look at the command line of a running rcp application there are quite a lot of framework parameters...

Searching for keywords like "eclipse, rcp, jruby" did not give me the result I hoped for. There is one project which essentially seems to be going in the direction of calling ruby classes from a java skeleton. No pure ruby.

Purpose: the application I'm looking to write will process time series. This tasks nicely fits IMHO into the concept of perspectives in an rcp application:

  1. Select time series,
  2. Build a model,
  3. Analyze the result.

Also, processing time series is nice in a workbench environment: you can have lots of windows open, group them, and so on...

So, I guess, my primary question is: do you have any pointers, how to write an Eclipse rcp application in ruby? But I'm also open to completely different suggestions for the task at hand.

George

1
eclipse-rcpjruby

1 Answers

0
votes

Regarding Eclipse RCP, I suggested using Glimmer with the assumption that the developer is already quite comfortable with Java and Eclipse RCP, and thus can improve productivity further by employing Glimmer via JRuby. However, I do not have direct personal experience doing so though I know it is possible by having user interface panels within the Eclipse RCP app load Glimmer Ruby UI code via JRuby.

For a Ruby developer on the other hand, I do not necessarily advice using Eclipse RCP as it follows heavy-weight Java paradigms (including heavy reliance on XML) and has a relatively steep learning curve.

The key benefit in Eclipse RCP for Java developers was being able to get started with a typical desktop application quickly, and by "typical", I mean an application that consists of a titled window, a toolbar, a menu bar, and one or more panels, usually one of which is in the center, and often focused on editing a file (image, document, form structured data, spreadsheet, etc...).

Eclipse RCP provides out of the box solutions to many of these "typical" desktop application problems, but although it does, I would rather a Ruby developer rewrite these solutions in Ruby and maybe come up with a new framework as a replacement to Eclipse RCP. That is because Ruby can provide much simpler solutions that rely on a lot less code and avoid use of XML.

Another alternative is to avoid Ruby and just work with pure Java to solve your problems by taking advantage of Eclipse RCP's workbenches, perspectives, and such. And then only once you master Eclipse RCP, maybe use Glimmer via JRuby. But, this might be even more time consuming especially if you're already invested in a lot of Ruby code.

If you do go with the first alternative (using pure Ruby without Eclipse RCP), I'd be interested to see if you can contribute any widgets or Glimmer extensions you come up back to Glimmer or a supporting Glimmer library/framework on GitHub.

Humbly,

Andy Maleh - Creator of Glimmer