Eclipse casts shadows

CONSPIRACY THEORISTS LOVE the Eclipse project. When the IBM-led consortium launched its open-source tools framework last fall, tongues began to wag. Not only does Eclipse shun Java's standard AWT (Abstract Window Toolkit) and Swing libraries, replacing these with SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit) for basic widgetry and JFace for advanced effects, but the very existence of Eclipse challenges the Sun-backed open-source tools framework, NetBeans. With last week's announcements from IBM, it became clear that Eclipse will host IBM's middleware tools as comprehensively as NetBeans does Sun's. Does Eclipse represent a two-front assault on Sun's Java stewardship? Yes and no. [Full story at InfoWorld.com.]

Former URL: http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2002/10/07.html#a436