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ERCP 1.2 Requirements and Draft Plan
Contents
Embedded Rich Client Platform Project 1.2 DRAFT Plan
Please send comments about this draft plan to the dsdp-ercp-dev@eclipse.org mailing list.
This document lays out the feature and API set for the next release of Embedded Rich Client Platform Project, to be released , in July 2008, and usually called "eRCP 1.2", for short.
This document is a draft and is subject to change, we welcome all feedback.
To ensure the planning process is transparent and open to the entire Eclipse community, we post plans in an embryonic form and revise them throughout the release cycle.
The first part of the plan deals with the important matters of release deliverables, release milestones, target operating environments, and release-to-release compatibility. These are all things that need to be clear for any release, even if no features were to change.
The remainder of the plan consists of plan items for the subcomponents under the eRCP project,
The current status of each plan item is noted:
- Committed plan item - A committed plan item is one that we have decided to address for the release.
- Proposed plan item - A proposed plan item is one that we are considering addressing for the release. Although we are actively investigating it, we are not yet in a position to commit to it, or to say that we won't be able to address it. After due consideration, a proposal will either be committed or deferred.
- Deferred plan item - A reasonable proposal that will not make it in to this release for some reason is marked as deferred with a brief note as to why it was deferred. Deferred plan items may resurface as committed plan items at a later point.
Release deliverables
The release deliverables have the same form as previous releases, namely:
- Source code release, available as versions tagged "R1_2" from eRCP CVS Repository
- eRCP runtime binary for Windows platform (downloadable).
- eRCP runtime binary for Windows Mobile 2003/5/6 (downloadable).
- eSWT device and emulator runtime binaries for Nokia S60 (downloadable).
Release milestones and release candidates
Release milestones will occur with the Eclipse Platform milestone releases and will follow Eclipse 3.4 milestones. The following are the approximate dates for eRCP milestones.
- Friday Sep. 28, 2007 - Milestone 1 (1.2 M1) - stable build
- Friday Dec. 19, 2007 - Milestone 2 (1.2 M2) - stable build
Target Operating Environments
- Microsoft Windows XP
- Microsoft Windows CE 5.0
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 5 PPC and Phone Edition
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Classic and Professional
- Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Standard (dependent on whether CDC JVM is available)
- Nokia S60
Compatibility with previous Releases
eRCP 1.2 will be compatible with eRCP 1.1
API Contract Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards contract-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in those areas that are noted. Programs that use affected APIs and extension points will need to be ported to eRCP 1.2 APIs. Downward contract compatibility is not supported. There is no guarantee that compliance with eRCP 1.2 APIs would ensure compliance with eRCP 1.1 APIs.
Binary Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards binary-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in those areas announced. Downward plug-in compatibility is not supported. Bundles for eRCP 1.2 will not be usable in eRCP 1.1
Source Compatibility: eRCP 1.2 will be upwards source-compatible with eRCP 1.1 except in the areas noted. This means that source files written to use eRCP 1.1 APIs might successfully compile and run against eRCP 1.2 APIs, although this is not guaranteed. Downward source compatibility is not supported. If source files use new eRCP 1.2 APIs, they will not be usable with an earlier version of eRCP.
Major themes
Improve Mobile Usability
The usability of eRCP components should be extended further to better accomodate mobile device needs. Here are the requirements
- As many of the targeted devices require one handed (non-touch)operation eRCP should ensure that its UI components are fully compatible with such cases.
- Better handling of the different screen sizes
Components
eSWT
Committed items
- Widget transparency and image setting bug 203566
- Browser.execute() for eSWT Browser bug 203561
- MultipageDialog API encourages memory use bug 203558
Proposed items
- Support for mobile JSR's: Provide enablers for UI related mobile JSRs in eSWT. Candidate APIs are MMAPI(jsr-135), M2G(jsr-226), M3G(jsr-184) and AMMS (jsr-234).
- Improved support for multiple displays: Ability to better target widgets for different screens bug 194749.
- Addressing the gaps with MIDP UI: Add missing major functionality compared to MIDP2 and MIDP3 to eSWT.
Defered items
None at this time
Core Runtime
Committed items
None at this time
Proposed items
None at this time
Defered items
None at this time
eWorkbech
Committed items
None at this time
Proposed items
Preferences Dialog: Using MultipageDialog for implementing the preferences dialog is causing problems on some platforms. Redesign preferences dialog for better usability on all platforms
Defered items
None at this time
eUpdate
Committed items
None at this time
Proposed items
Update changes in platform: Eclipse platform is changing the update functionality with Equinox p2. eUpdate should follow and react the changes if necessary.
Defered items
None at this time