To everything there is a season, and this is the season for wrapping up a
new Eclipse and getting it out the door. M7 is the last milestone
of the 3.4 release cycle. With all feature work complete, we now begin
the endgame. Here are some of the more noteworthy things you'll find in milestone
build M7 (May 2, 2008) which is now available for download.
See the build notes for details about bugs fixed
and other changes.
PDE
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| Improved self-hosting |
PDE now supports the ability to compile
runtime workspace plug-ins against the launching workspace.
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| Internal extension points |
PDE now lets you mark an extension point as
internal. This allows extension point clients to be notified when they
are using an internal extension point.
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| P2 target provisioner |
PDE includes a new p2 target provisioner that
lets you add plug-ins to your target platform from a p2 repository or update
site.
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| OSGi services |
The Plug-in Registry view was enhanced to include
information about OSGi services.
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| Product editor enhancements |
The product editor was enhanced to allow for
per-platform configuration files (config.ini) and the ability to version
product definitions.
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| New API errors and warnings |
API analysis now reports invalid use of API
Javadoc tags; e.g., using a @noimplement tag on a class. By
default, the Javadoc tag validation is not performed. To enable this feature
set the problem severity of Unsupported use of API Javadoc tags to
warning or error on the API Errors/Warnings preference
page. You can use a quick fix to remove the unsupported tag.
Problem severity settings have been added for each kind of leak detected
by API analysis. Use the API Errors/Warnings preference
page to configure individual severities.
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JDT
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| Java
compiler on multi-CPU machines |
You should see faster Java compile times when
using machines with multiple CPUs. The Eclipse
Compiler for Java (aka "ecj") is now taking advantage of the
multi-threading capability of multi-CPU machines. The full build of a Java
project also takes advantage of this support. |
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| Flexible ZIP archive extensions |
It is now possible to add ZIP archives on the
build path with file extensions other than .zip or .jar.
For example, it is now possible to add a .rar file on the
build path.
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| Inserting parameter name also
shows guessed arguments |
When content assist is set to automatically
insert the parameter name it now also shows the guessed arguments:
This can be configured on the Java > Editor > Content Assist preference
page. |
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| Undo format |
Formatting a set of Java elements, e.g. via
Package Explorer, can now be undone using Edit > Undo Format (Ctrl+Z). |
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| Enhanced debug hover |
When debugging, hovers for variables have
been enhanced to display an object inspector. The inspector will display
logical structures according to the toggle setting in the visible Variables
or Expressions view.
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Equinox
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| Checking software trust |
When you install or upgrade using Help > Software
Updates, the install process will now examine the signatures of
the code being installed, and verify that you trust the provider of the
software. This verification only occurs once in the install process,
after all the new software has been downloaded. The dialog allows you
to view the certificate trust chain, and examine the details of each
certificate.
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| Viewing available software |
You can now view the software that's available
for install or update in multiple ways. The Available Software tab
in the Help > Software Updates dialog now provides a view
menu button that lets you view the software by site, category, or name.
You may also use the filter box in the dialog to filter the available
software by name.
New checkboxes at the bottom allow you to further control what is shown
in the view.
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| No scrollbars |
The style bit NO_SCROLL was added on all
platforms to prevent scrollbars in SWT tables and trees. This is useful
if you know that a certain table or tree is a fixed size and will never
contain enough elements to warrant scrollbars. For more info, check out
this SWT
snippet.
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| Resize Table and Tree columns
using the keyboard |
The column widths of certain Tables and Trees
can now be changed in a keyboard-accessible way. This shows up in the list
of plug-ins or features available from the About dialog, and as a new
view menu item in all views displaying markers (Problems, Tasks, Bookmarks,
and Markers).
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| Print button in Help view |
The Help
view now has a print button.
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| Focus quick diff and annotation
hovers via mouse |
Quick Diff and CVS annotation hovers can now
be focused by moving the mouse into the hover. This depends on the General > Editors > Text
Editors > When mouse moved into hover preference.
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| Select text via Shift+Click
into line number ruler |
Text in the editor can now also be selected
by shift-clicking in the line number ruler. |
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| Improved text search |
The regular expressions support for text
search has been extended:
In the Containing text field, the new pattern \R matches any
line delimiter (Windows \r\n, Unix \n, and Mac \r). Note that \R cannot
be used in character groups ([]), since the Windows delimiter \r\n consists
of two characters.
Several new constructs are available when replacing text in files, including:
- \R inserts the document line delimiter (same as Enter key)
- \r and \n insert carriage return and newline characters, respectively.
Note that mixing line delimiters inside a document is not recommended
and may lead to problems with external editors. \R is usually a better
choice.
- \t inserts a Tab
- \xhh and \uhhhh insert the specified character
Content assist and the F1 help tell all the gory details. |
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| Retain case in text search replace |
The replace functionality in text search now
lets you retain the case. Use \C in the replace pattern to define which
words should be replaced using the same casing as the original.
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| Line counter in Apply Patch
wizard |
The Apply Patch wizard counts lines
added and removed in the patch.
The default mechanism simply sums all lines starting with '+' and '-'. To
define custom patterns which can be used to exclude empty lines or comments,
go to the General > Compare/Patch preference page.
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| System proxy settings |
The General > Network Connections preference
page allows you to specify the proxy settings to be used when connecting
to the network. The new System proxy configuration option lets you
reuse OS proxy settings in Eclipse. Eclipse supports:
- Proxy manual settings and automatic configuration on Windows
- Proxy environment variables and Gnome settings on Linux
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The above features are just the ones that are new since the previous milestone
build. Summaries for earlier 3.4 milestone builds: