The Eclipse Foundation is demonstrating tools of interest to embedded Linux developers, at the Embedded Systems Conference in San Jose, Calif. this week. The tools include projects from the top-level Device Software Development Project (DSDP) project, expected in June, and a preview of the next major C/C++ Development Tool release (CDT).

DSDP

The DSDP project was originally proposed by Wind River in March, 2005, and was accepted by the community in May of last year. It has since attracted representatives from more than 20 companies, the Foundation says, and expects to make its initial code releases as part of the planned “Callisto” Eclipse release this June.

DSDP projects that plan to release code as part of Callisto include:

• Mobile Tools for the Java Platform (MTJ) Project — Aims to provide frameworks for runtime management of devices and emulators, build management, and deployment of Java Platform ME applications, mobile device debugging, application creation wizards, UI design tools, localization, and mobile security extensions. The initial release will focus on runtime management, build and deployment of J2ME applications, Eclipse says.
• Native Application Builder (NAB) Project — Proposed and led by Fujitsu, NAB provides a visual GUI builder and graphics runtime libraries for device applications running on Linux, Windows CE, ITRON and other device operating systems. The visual GUI builder generates C++ source code and uses CDT for the edit-compile-debug cycle, where applicable for the device operating system. It is based on technology originally developed in the WideStudio project, a very popular open source project in the Japanese market.
• The Device Debugging (DD) Project — This project focuses on building enhanced debug models, APIs, and views to provide greater visibility into and control over device software targets. The DD project is currently working to improve the flexibility and customization of the Eclipse Debug Model Interfaces, and expects to release new Interfaces in June. These Interfaces can be used on top of the Eclipse Platform or inside CDT to build custom debugger implementations for multi-core development and on-chip debugging support, the project says.

Additionally, a Target Management (TM) Project expects to release code in September. The TM project is “creating data models and frameworks to configure and manage remote systems, their connections and their services,” the Foundation says, and is based on “Remote Systems Explorer” software contributed by IBM.

Doug Gaff, the Wind River manager who leads the project, stated, “Community participation and our vision for a common, open standards based device software development platform are taking shape more quickly than expected. The first projects will release this June and commercial products are expected to ship shortly after.”

Gaff will lead a technical session at ESC on the DSDP, on Apr. 6, from 8:30 to 10 AM, PDT.

CDT

Additionally, at ESC, the Eclipse Foundation is previewing a release of the top-level CDT project planned for June. The release aims to better support large development projects, and to interoperate with more build and debug tools. It features a new indexer architecture said to simplify searching and cross-referencing C/C++ code, along with expanded debugger support “to handle different variants of gdb/MI protocols often found in large scale C/C++ development organizations,” the Foundation says. Additionally, the release will offer an update to the managed build system that aims to eliminate the need for external build tools such as “make.”

A technical session entitled “Eclipse: Under the Hood” will be held on April 6th, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM, PDT.

 
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