Iteration 1

• Phase: Elaboration
• Dates: December 1 - 22, 2006

Tasks to be Completed

Eclipse

• Acquire and install the software.
• Evaluate available tools for designing forms.

Simple Plug-In

• Create an Eclipse plug-in that has a visual form for the user to input a timestep for a LANDIS-II extension.
• If time permits, the plug-in should also allow the user to save the timestep to a text file.

Assessment

Summary

The assessment was completed on December 22, 2006.

In summary, Eclipse is a promising tool with a very steep learning curve. There are two large challenges ahead: 1. creating the LIME RCP (Rich Client Platform - a free standing application separate from Eclipse) and extensions (plug-ins), 2. Communication with existing C# classes. This iteration focussed primarily on the former.

Lessons Learned

• Eclipse is a very rich, powerful IDE (integrated development environment) for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It includes help tools, text editors, tutorials, and update manager and many other sophisticated tools which can be incorporated into an RCP.
• Eclipse itself is not a GUI for users. It is a developers tool for creating GUIs and has the buttons and tools that a developer - not a user - would expect.
• Creating an RCP in Eclipse is relatively easy. Creating extensions for Eclipse is very easy. Creating extensions for the LIME RCP is very difficult. To date, no examples have been found where someone has created an extension for an RCP.
• In theory, an extension should be simply added by adding an ascii XML file to the plug-ins folder for each RCP.
• Eclipse includes simple visual editing for extensions. A plugin developer need not be proficient in xml.
• Eclipse is relatively new and there is a frustrating lack of available information.

Completed Tasks

• Eclipse installed.
• LIME RCP created. A plugin for Eclipse created.

Task Not Completed

• Plugin for LIME RCP not created or operational.
• Timestep window for plugin not created.