Praise

Foreword

The Eclipse Graphical Editor Framework (GEF) project supports the creation of rich graphical editors and views for Eclipse-based tools and Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications. GEF’s three frameworks - Draw2D, Zest and GEF – are amongst the most widely used within the Eclipse community and ecosystem.

“Mighty oaks from little acorns grow” is the story of the GEF project. In the context of the Eclipse community, GEF is a relatively small project. But the tools, applications and products which have been enabled by GEF form a very long list indeed. Everything from mission planning for the Mars Rovers to most of the world’s commercial modeling tools make use of GEF. GEF is also widely re-used within the Eclipse community itself, and is leveraged by Eclipse projects such as GMF, Graphiti, AMP, Sphinx and Papyrus. It is an testament to the idea that a small, powerful, and open source framework can make an enormous impact on the industry.

A big part of the success of the GEF project and its three frameworks has been its long-term focus on being a platform. Although there has been a steady flow of innovative new features, the quality, stability and backwards compatibility of the GEF project APIs have been a big part of its success. That level of commitment to the “platformness” (to coin a phrase) of a framework is the hallmark of a great project at Eclipse. It requires a great deal of commitment and discipline by the project team to accomplish

Eclipse projects are powered by people, so I would like to recognize the contributions of the present GEF project leader Anthony Hunter, and the past leaders Randy Hudson and Steven Shaw, all of IBM. I would also like to recognize the many contributions of the projects committers past and present: Nick Boldt, Alex Boyko, Ian Bull, Marc Gobeil, Alexander Nyssen, Cherie Revells, Pratik Shah and Fabian Steeg. I would also like to recognize the contributions and investments of IBM, itemis AG, EclipseSource, and Tasktop in supporting the team working on GEF.

Dan Rubel and Eric Clayberg are the authors of one of the most highly regarded books in the history of Eclipse. Their “Eclipse Plug-ins” is generally considered the seminal book on how to extend the Eclipse platform. Dan and Eric, this time joined by their colleague Jaime Wren, have brought their clear prose, deep knowledge and focus on the issues that matter to developers using the Eclipse GEF framework to this new book. I know that you will find it a useful addition to your Eclipse library.

— Mike Milinkovich

Executive Director, Eclipse Foundation, Inc.