In-Depth

CodeGear To Release Eclipse Plug-Ins

• By John K. Waters
• September 1, 2007

CodeGear, the development-tools arm of Borland Software Corp., is set to release a group of specialized plug-ins for the Eclipse open source development platform this month. Collectively called JGear, the plug-ins are designed to address pain points faced by Java developers using Eclipse-based tools.

Specifically, the JGear plug-ins address four problem areas for Java developers: application performance tuning, coding and configuring Java servers and frameworks, development-team collaboration, and code visualization.

The JGear plug-ins are designed to augment the capabilities of Eclipse integrated development environments (IDEs) that have been developed in-house. The plug-ins also work with commercially available tools, such as MyEclipse, IBM Rational Application Developer, BEA Workshop and Borland's own Turbo JBuilder, said Michael Swindell, CodeGear's vice president of products and strategy.

"We've talked to a lot of organizations that are in the process of standardizing on internally configured Eclipse platforms and/or commercial solutions," Swindell said. "These plug-ins fill the gaps we see today in those environments."

The new JGear product line includes four plug-ins:

• JGear Performance for Eclipse. This plug-in provides performance and tuning features, including: memory and CPU profiling and debugging; automatic detection of potential memory leaks; and real-time monitoring of programs' use of virtual machine memory.
• JGear LiveSource for Eclipse. This plug-in provides the following tools: a graphical Enterprise JavaBeans workbench and Web services designer to "ease rapid application development for both novice and experienced J2EE developers"; Unified Modeling Language visualization of code artifacts and design for analyzing an application's design and implementation; CodeGear's LiveSource technology, which simultaneously replicates changes to models in the code and vice versa to aid alignment between software architects and developers; and easy creation of Enterprise JavaBeans and model relationships.
• JGear Team Client. This plug-in is based on TeamInsight, a collaboration foundation designed to provide individual developers with a unified, real-time view of their project responsibilities, which also allows them to spot bugs, change requests, code notes and do tasks. The Team Client plug-in also includes team collaboration extensions to the Eclipse open source Mylyn project (formerly called Mylar), which is a task-focused user interface. (CodeGear actively supports Mylyn and has recently contributed new requirements for management capabilities to the project.)
• JGear Team Server. This plug-in is a team development server stack based on best-of-breed open source components such as Subversion, Bugzilla, Continuum and XPlanner. It also includes CodeGear's ProjectAssist, the JGear Team administrator client for single-click server installation and configuration, team project creation, user administration and setup.

All of these capabilities are currently part of CodeGear's Eclipse-based IDE, JBuilder 2007, which evolved from Borland's venerable JBuilder Java IDE line.

"Our Eclipse strategy is about embracing open source technologies, not replacing them," Swindell said. "Our approach is to enhance those technologies and tie them together for higher productivity, better quality and better team collaboration. That hasn't changed. We're just delivering those features in two ways."

CodeGear unveiled its new JGear line last week at the New York Real-World Java Seminar. The first group of plug-ins for Eclipse 3.2 is expected sometime in September. CodeGear is currently working on a version for Eclipse 3.3, Swindell said.