[Updated Apr. 5] — The Eclipse Foundation has announced its next “comprehensive codebase” release, scheduled for this June. The “Europa” release promises a major new 4.0 version of the venerable C/C++ Development Tool (CDT) editor, along with new iterations and debuts of several exciting Device Software Development Platform (DSDP) projects.

Planned June Europa releases include:

• CDT 4.0, to feature improved indexing, new source navigation views, and a simplified “new project” wizard supporting project templates. Also planned: tighter integration with MinGW GNU tool chain, simplifying C/C++ application development on Windows. And: added support for GDB-based JTAG embedded debugging
• A new debugger services framework from the DSDP Device Debugging (DSDP-DD) project — said to provide “additional performance, functionality and modularity” for commercial embedded debuggers built on Eclipse
• A new IP-XACT editor, also from the DSDP-DD project — with a sample debugger view contributed from the SPIRIT consortium
• Expanded mobile platform support for Windows CE 5.0 and Nokia S60 in the DSDP embedded Rich Client Platform (eRCP) project
• Enhancements to the DSDP Mobile Tools for Java project — including Visual Flow editor, LCDUI Designer, support for external obfuscators, localization, new profiles, and configurations (such as MIDP 2.1, and Multi SDK support in a single project)
• DSDP Target Management (TM) enhancements including:

  • User-defined actions on remote systems
  • Eclipse File System (EFS) support on all connections
  • Integrated Terminal Emulation
  • “Improved flexibility, APIs, and platform integration”

The Eclipse Foundation's last major release of DSDP project software took place last November, when 1.0 versions of the Target Management and Embedded Rich Client Platform plug-ins launched, alongside a 0.7 release of the Mobile Tools for Java plugin.

Eclipse began as an IBM IDE (integrated development environment) for Java, similar to Sun's freely downloadable NetBeans. IBM released Eclipse under the Common Public License (an “Eclipse Public License” was later used) as part of a “billion dollar” investment in open source in the late 1990s, and Eclipse subsequently saw wide — if not universal — adoption among commercial embedded Linux tools vendors, in part because it solves the problem for relatively small companies of having to maintain tools for multiple development hosts: the basic open-source Eclipse framework is maintained on Linux, Windows, Solaris, and possibly other operating systems.

Many embedded Linux tools vendors initially assembled their own branded IDEs based on the CDT editor plugin. However, Wind River adopted an “all plug-in” architecture with its WorkBench 2.6 release last fall, claiming that the increasing maturity of DSDP project components made the move possible. Competitor MontaVista launched an open beta program for an all-plugin 5.0 version of its DevRocket tool suite at about the same time. Other shipping tools leveraging DSDP components include Atmel AVR32 Studio 1.0, IBM Lotus Expeditor 6.1, and the EMAC Eclipse Distribution.

Additionally, according to the Eclipse Foundation, other commercial toolsuites currently being developed around DSDP project software include Wind River Workbench 3.0, Motorola MOTODEV Studio, Tradescape Clearing Tool, QNX Momentics, and the Access Linux Platform Development Suite v2.0.

The DSDP project was spearheaded by Wind River, a longtime marketshare leader in the device software development tools market.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.