Modular Mind

In response to my last post on Eclipse RCP Trends, Chris Aniszczyk commented:

Deep down inside… I think it’s a marketing issue… we have done a poor job marketing RCP in my opinion. We have brand confusion that when people hear Eclipse still they think IDE, not a rich client platform. It’s my hope that with the new Runtime project, we have a chance to rebrand Eclipse into more of a platform under the Equinox umbrella.

I couldn’t agree more, and I’ve spent some time this summer trying to wrap my head around this issue. I should say up front that I have zero marketing experience. But on the other hand, I have spent a lot of time with RCP newcomers and have some experience viewing this technology through their eyes.

So what did I come up with? Well this might sound pretty obvious to some, but my conclusion is that RCP = modularity. Period. If you want to assemble (dynamically or otherwise) an application from a set of components/plug-ins/bundles/whatever, then RCP is the tool for you. Sure it’s a UI toolkit, sure it offers a workbench, preference pages, etc. But the core idea that animates RCP is modularity.

The good news is that Java modularity in general and OSGi/Equinox in particular are playing an increasingly important role in software development. We need to ride this trend and make clear that RCP is the visual expression of Java modularity. When you want to apply the principles of Java modularity in the UI space, RCP is the tool for you.

From a marketing point of view, this brings me to the same conclusion that Chris reached above. Basically, RCP needs to be rebranded as part of a suite of technologies related to Java modularity. In other words, RCP needs to become the Equinox UI.

I’ve been having some fun today with Google Insights for Search, and of course my first thought was to examine trends relating to the Eclipse Rich Client Platform. And what did I find? Here is a chart showing historical data beginning in 2004 for the search “eclipse rcp”.

First, this is just awesome data! You can drill down to individual countries, states/provinces or even cities. I could play with this all day, but I really should get back to work!


Unfortunately the news isn’t good for Eclipse RCP. It’s interesting that while Eclipse RCP job postings are trending up, the search statistics are telling a different story. The stats for RCP look even worse when you compare them to Adobe Flex, which many (mistakenly, I believe) think of as a substitute for RCP.

We obviously need to do a much better job promoting Eclipse RCP. There are so many things involved with this, including making the platform easier to use (hopefully the e4 project will help) and also communicating clearly what Eclipse RCP is and why it’s useful. I’ll have something to say about this later point in upcoming posts, but I’d be curious to hear what others have to say. What do you think can be done to better promote Eclipse RCP?