Oh this is awesome… Eclipse is trending on Twitter.
On top of that, we’re nestled next to Chuck Norris! It’s good to be next to Chuck.
Ok, maybe it’s not the “Eclipse” I want it to be… but let’s consider it practice for when EclipseCon rolls around.
I’ve seen a lot of interesting stuff as of late that relates to Eclipse technology being used in academia. For example, Ugo Sangiorgi has been working on a position paper around the Sketch project for FlexiTools 2010.
Another cool Eclipse-related academic item I just saw was Code Bubbles. I also know that GEF3D has done some work in academia. Heck, the Mylyn project got its start as an academic project for awhile. I wonder if there’s something more we can do to make it easier for academia to participate in the Eclipse ecosystem and benefit from it. Here are some ideas that popped out in my mind…
For those living in academia, what do you think? What would benefit you?
As of late, I’ve been helping a couple new Eclipse.org projects prepare for creation and release reviews. As an Eclipse.org project, you have to follow the Eclipse Development Guidelines. A part of that process is doing scheduled reviews when you’re ready to release. To make the review process a bit easier for some folks, I’ve created some unofficial templates on Google Docs you can use (just search Google Doc templates for ‘Eclipse.org‘ and you should find them).
On a side note, if you’re a project lead, a good place is to go to Eclipsepedia for information about the review process.
Hope you find this information useful.
My favorite time of year is about to start soon when it comes to open source development, Eclipse’s involvement with the Google Summer of Code (GSOC) program.
All people involved in the Eclipse community should post their ideas here. It’s a good time to start posting ideas, as students will start looking at mentoring organizations in mid March.
There is little downside in participating in this program in my opinion. As an Eclipse.org GSOC mentor, you get the rewarding opportunity to mentor a student in the ways of Eclipse and open source. As a student, you get Eclipse experience and paid for your contributions!
In the end, the whole open source community benefits.
In the past month, there’s been a lot of new Eclipse.org project proposals…
If anything looks interesting, feel free to give the projects feedback as they go through the Eclipse Development Process. Personally, I’m looking forward to the logo of the ELF project as I have this vision of an elf sitting on a moon (or something to that nature).
Today, the Eclipse Foundation’s Board Member elections start (to be exact, February 22, 2010 at noon EDT). You should receive an email with voting instructions if you’re eligible.
I insist you vote. If you can’t vote, I highly recommend you become an Eclipse Member as it gives the power to vote and influence the future direction of Eclipse.
The people that both represent committers and solution members have a unique position to push the board on specific subjects. I recall that last year, the committer representatives pushed extremely hard to have JGit hosted at Eclipse.org (due to it’s unique licensing situation). The first time we brought the issue up we were denied the move. However, through some passionate persistence on the committer representatives end, we pushed forward and were successful with the JGit move. The committer representatives also had a large impact on moving the Eclipse Marketplace forward. Although it’s not the appstore some of us envisioned yet, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.
As for who you should vote for, I can simply say I vote for the people who are passionate and are committed (see Ed’s post) to the success of Eclipse. As always, I would be honored to be given the chance to represent the committers again on the board. I believe we have a great thing going on at Eclipse in respect to technology and open source project governance. I can only guarantee that I will continue to be passionate, do my best to attract/mentor new projects and improve the processes within the Eclipse community.
So what are you waiting for, rock the vote this afternoon.
In case you weren’t aware, the Symbian Foundation recently open-sourced their Symbian^3 platform under EPL. I’ve had a few people come to me and ask first, what is the Eclipse Public License and why would Symbian choose that license say over the GPL or APL.
So let me try to answer some of those questions (note: IANAL).
What is the Eclipse Public License?
The Eclipse Public License is an OSI approved license. It’s a weak copyleft license similar in spirit to the LGPL. Any changes and certain additions to EPL-licensed code need to be licensed on under the EPL.
This is unlike the GPL where it dictates that any work that is based on GPL-licensed code must itself be GPL-licensed. Some people like to call this licensing behavior viral.
If you want to learn more about the EPL, check out the EPL FAQ.
Why did Symbian favor the Eclipse Public License?
Well, according the Symbian FAQ, here is the reason…
“The Symbian Foundation has instead chosen the EPL because it wants to be absolutely clear about this: device manufacturers will be able to add new features and support new hardware without having to make all of that code open source, except where they are changing or making certain additions to EPL code supplied by the Symbian platform. We expect that device manufacturers will see the value of enriching the Symbian platform by contributing their innovations, but we don’t insist that everyone must contribute everything.”
On top of that, I postulate that Symbian recognized the importance of giving people a choice and protecting the investment in the Symbian platform code. This is where I argue a weak copyleft license like the EPL actually gives you more freedom than a strong copyleft license like the GPL. The GPL wants to devour your code and all of its friends. The EPL gives you a choice.
Why not LGPL? Well, there are some patent retaliation and reverse engineering clauses in the LGPL that make certain companies legal departments nervous. Other than that, I actually like the LGPL’s weak copyleft spirit.
The Rise of Weak Copyleft Licenses
One of my predictions is that in the near future, we will see a significant rise in the usage of weak copyleft licenses. If you’re looking to build an ecosystem full of commercial and individuals members, a weak copyleft license is the best choice in my humble opinion. Eclipse first blazed the weak copyleft builds ecosystems path with the CPL/EPL followed by Symbian. Microsoft is getting into the game with the MS-PL license (which is weak copyleft). Even Intuit’s Partner Platform is dancing with the EPL. I’m sure there are others in the wild.
Do other people have strong feelings on weak copy left licenses? Do you see a pattern too?
On a side note, if you have the time to burn on legal issues, I highly recommend taking a gander at Janet Campbell’s “Managing Open Source Legal Issues” video on EclipseLive.
I have some good news everyone.
The EGit and JGit projects at Eclipse are producing consumable builds via Maven3 and Tycho.
It took awhile to get the build story working due to the diverse needs of all the consuming parties. There was a desire for JGit builds to produce p2 and maven artifacts and have those consumed by the EGit build. If anyone has worked with this mixed mode situation before, they should understand the pain of getting everything working. If you’re working in a mixed mode environment or already tied to maven, I highly recommend giving Tycho a chance (the team was also very responsive when we hit issues).
We will also be scheduling a release review soon to get an official incubation build out for everyone to try and give feedback. The only way the tooling will get better is if people try it and file bugs (or even contribute patches). You can be an early adopter and try installing the latest builds. We also have an extensive contributor guide online if you’re planning to contribute patches with Gerrit running to facilitate patch review.
If you hit problems or have suggestions, file bugs and try the EGit mailing list.
It’s that time of year again at Eclipse!
In preparation for the Eclipse Helios release, projects are asked to get their IP logs in order by February 5, 2010.
I saw some interesting SWT related things as of late so I figure I’d share with everyone.
It’s a widget that enables transition effects in SWT… see for yourself…
I think the project is a good candidate for Nebula if anyone wants to reach out to them.
Nebula – AeroToolBar
It looks like the Nebula project will be getting a donated widget that resembles the Vista toolbar.
I generally find user interface wireframing tools very lackluster. However, taking an existing piece of live user interface…
And painlessly turning it into a mockup…
Very cool!
Anyone see anything else good lately?
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