0.7
The 0.7 release is scheduled to coincide with Eclipse Oxygen and should bring us even closer to finalizing the Core API: almost all of the issues targeted by this release are concerned with Core API quality. The 0.7 development has been informed in a large part by trying to adopt Handly within the context of a non-trivial existing model implementation (namely, an experimental fork of Eclipse Java development tools) to ensure that Handly can deliver a solid foundation without affecting any of the public APIs and most of the internal (non-)APIs of the existing model.
There is no declared API in this release as both the API and the API policy may still evolve before the 1.0 release.
That being said, this release is focused on API quality and takes another step further towards finalizing core Handly APIs.
Due to the API rework involved, there are breaking changes that existing clients will need to accommodate to. We'll guide early adopters through the necessary migration steps.
We still have a PMI-based website [1], CBI-based build [2], an architectural overview [3], the contributor guide [4], committer FAQ [5], and a number of exemplary implementations including a basic Xtext-based example and a more advanced Java model example (Handly Examples).
All existing artifacts are kept up-to-date. The architectural overview reflects the still current (at the time of this writing) 0.6 version and will be updated once Handly 0.7 is released.
Also available is a step-by-step guide to getting started with Handly [6] (hosted on GitHub and made available under the EPL v1.0), which has enjoyed some encouraging feedback from early adopters. Based on the still current (at the time of this writing) 0.6 version, it will be updated to take advantage of Handly 0.7 immediately after the release.
We will also provide a migration guide for current adopters in the time leading to this release.
[1] https://projects.eclipse.org/projects/technology.handly
[2] https://hudson.eclipse.org/handly/
[3] http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/handly/docs/handly-overview.pdf&r=1
[4] http://git.eclipse.org/c/handly/org.eclipse.handly.git/about/
All discussion happens on open channels of developer mailing list [1], adopter forum [2] and bugzilla [3]. The project lead's blog posts on topics surrounding Handly [4] are syndicated to Planet Eclipse.
To provide existing adopters with an opportunity to give it an early try, leave feedback or raise concerns, a milestone build (corresponding to an attempt at API freeze towards this release) was made available [5].
Despite its incubation status, the project is known to be successfully used in two large-scale commercial products [6]. We'll make available separately an experimental fork of Eclipse Java development tools based on Handly 0.7 as a real-world example to encourage further adoption. Broader community feedback and participation would be most welcome.
[1] https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/handly-dev
[2] http://eclipse.org/forums/eclipse.handly
[3] https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?product=Handly
[4] http://pisv.wordpress.com/tag/handly/
[5] https://dev.eclipse.org/mhonarc/lists/handly-dev/msg00219.html