4.4.0

Description

This release brings full GTK+ 3 (where supported and successfully tested) and Java 8 support to Eclipse. It also improves performance and stability of the Platform user interface. For more details see the official Luna Plan.

API Certification

The project leadership certifies that the APIs in this release are "Eclipse Quality".

Architectural Issues

More APIs have been released for Eclipse Platform 4
Reference JREs for development and testing updated to most recent releases but no major changes
Linux builds come with GTK+ 3 support enabled by default on GTK+ 3 versions prior to 3.10, versions newer than that will fall back to GTK+ 2.x by default for maximum stability
0 removed bundles
5 new bundles
- org.eclipse.core.filesystem.java7
- org.eclipse.jdt.annotation_2.0.0 (in addition to org.eclipse.jdt.annotation_1.1.0)
- org.eclipse.osgi.compatibility.state
- org.eclipse.pde.api.tools.annotations
- org.eclipse.ui.themes
3 new bundles consumed from Orbit
- org.apache.batik.css
- org.objectweb.asm.tree
- org.w3c.dom.events

Security Issues

The Eclipse top-level continues to fix and resolve any security related issues found during development and penetration testing.

Non-Code Aspects

The build system is under continuous improvement
- http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform-releng/Platform_Build
Running Juno maintenance builds after 4.2.2 in Long Term Support (LTS) forge
Conscious effort to engage contributors and accept contributions
- Attended code camps and hack days
- Held dedicated patch days where contributions were reviewed
- See plan item bug 422762 for other activities to get more contributions
Internationalization
- Latin1 and Latin2 locales are supported in all operating environments
- DBCS locales are supported on all platforms
- BIDI locales supported on all platforms
- GB18030-1 Chinese code page standard is supported on Windows, Linux GTK+ and Mac.
- Added BIDI support for combo box and a new Globalization preference page
Localization
- Tested for Localization and participating in Babel Project
Accessibility
- Significant focus on US Gov. Section 508 accessibility compliance
- Open accessibility bugs: 8 major, 0 critical, 0 blocker
The 4.4 release contains updated User and ISV documentation
Articles, examples, and tutorials
- New and updated tutorials for Eclipse 4: http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse4/Tutorials
- Numerous Webinars and Podcasts
- Some of the new/updated articles and tutorials were provided by the Eclipse community

Usability Details

Eclipse SDK is a superior IDE for Java tooling and plug-in development
Many usability enhancements made in 4.4 to continue this tradition (see New and Noteworthy for details)
Strings are externalized to support translation into other languages
Extensive use of mnemonics and shortcut keys in the user interface enhances usability
Full Bidirectional support (mirroring) on Windows and Linux GTK+, bidirectional text on Mac OS X
Accessibility support for Windows, Linux GTK+ and Mac OS X
Eclipse User Interface Guidelines followed

End of Life

Support for non-OSGi bundles from Eclipse 2.0 has been removed in the 4.4 release as part of Equinox framework refactoring. A compatibility bundle is available.
We plan to remove the delta pack for Mars. It is additional overhead/work and one can achieve the same via p2 repository. We will only do this after providing detailed instructions on how to it via p2 before removing the delta pack.
When evolving API the Eclipse Platform will, whenever possible, deprecate API methods and continue to keep them operational
Exceptions to this rule are in the 4.4 migration guide
A process is in place for removing invalid/outdated API – http://wiki.eclipse.org/Eclipse/API_Central/API_Removal_Process

Standards

Annotation Processing APIs
- com.sun.mirror 1.5
- javax.annotation.processing 1.6
Java compiler API
- javax.tools 1.6
User Assistance consumes (parses) a small subset of RSS 1.0 to get news from eclipse.org
JUnit 4.11
Java SE
- Tools are built against Java SE 6
- Compiler can generate Java 1.1 through Java 1.8 code
- Eclipse Platform can run on Java SE 6, 7 or 8
SWT: Win32, GDI, GDI+, OLE, IE, Cocoa, Core Graphics, Quick Draw, Safari, ATSUI, X Windows, X/t, GTK+, GDK, Pango, Cairo, ATK, Mozilla, Uniscribe,OpenGL

Communities

The Eclipse team is active in Bugzilla, forums and mailing lists
Many Eclipse blogs on http://planeteclipse.org
Some teams are using IRC to communicate
- irc://irc.freenode.net#eclipse-dev
- irc://irc.freenode.net/#eclipse-e4
- also see: http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/IRC
Major Eclipse presence on http://stackoverflow.com
The Eclipse team participates in code camps, conference presentations, and tutorials, including EclipseCon, EclipseCon Europe, Eclipse Demo Camps, JavaOne, JavaWorld,JAOO, JAX, JAX Asia, JSConf
The Eclipse team interacts with other open source projects, standards bodies, and other projects on eclipse.org, including OSGi, Apache Ant, JCP, WTP, GCJ, GTK+