Bug 346783

Description Markus Knauer 2011-05-21 08:53:30 EDT

Most packages tend to grow in size and in functionality over time, and all efforts of package maintainers to make them small fail sooner or later. One possible solution that we tried was the dynamic web-based installation wizard and the download of a customised p2 installer; another approach includes the Marketplace client that opens the door for external components, i.e. components that are not for distribution from eclipse.org. But there is something missing in between, something that can expose the work from projects participating in the Simultaneous Release in a consumable way.

What I propose is an extension of the Welcome page that allows a user who started a package to install additional components. One of my pre-conditions is that the components must be from the Simultaneous Release train only, condition two is that the package maintainer is responsible for the selection of tools that can be installed that way.

Here are a few examples where I think it would make sense to solve the problem of growing packages that way:

* User has the Java package
** (s)he can choose on the Welcome screen to install m2e, WindowBuilder, git, Jubula - it is very likely that not everyone needs all of them which shows that our current approach of putting everything in the package is wrong, but my guess is that it would help many people if these tools were installable in an easier way than Help > Install New Software... > select the right repository > find out the category > ...

* User has the RCP/RAP package
** now it would make sense to ask the user to install the same components as in the above Java package, but maybe with a different feature set enabled (e.g. WindowBuilder again, but now with the RCP features enabled)

What I'd like to show with those examples: There are some very sophisticated tools in the Simultaneous Release that *many users* would like to have in their package, but *not every user* does really need them. On the other hand it must be simple to get them.