Eclipse Day returns to Google

At Google, one of the tools we use in building external and internal products is Eclipse. In addition to that, we also release Eclipse-based tools. To celebrate this and say thank you to the developer community, we’ll be hosting Eclipse Day at the Googleplex on the Mountain View, CA campus on December 18th, 2013.

Eclipse Day is a great opportunity for both Eclipse users and contributors to network and share ideas. This year we have sessions that cover Orion, the Eclipse M2M tools, BIRT, Gerrit, CDT, Dart, Hudson, performance tuning in Eclipse, and scaling Eclipse to work with Google’s massive code base. During the one day conference, Eclipse projects and Eclipse-based products created here at Google will also be highlighted.

In previous years some of the most popular sessions have been the Eclipse Ignite talks: 5-minute, 20-slide presentations by attendees sharing what they are doing with Eclipse.

A big thank you to everyone at the Eclipse Foundation for assembling this great event. We are happy to welcome the Eclipse community to our campus and are always looking for ways to make this conference better. Please share your ideas and let us know your thoughts about this year’s program.

Pre-registration, which includes a $40 contribution to the Eclipse Foundation, is required for attendance. You may pre-register until December 17th, 2013, 2pm PST.

Hope to see you there!

By Alex Ruiz, Android Development Tools

Eclipse Day at the Googleplex 2012

Here at Google, we use Eclipse every day to build our external and internal products, as well as building and releasing Eclipse tools. We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting Eclipse Day at Googleplex on December 12th, 2012. Hosting this event is one way to say “thank you” and contribute back to the developer community.

Eclipse Day is a great opportunity for both Eclipse users and contributors to network and share ideas. This year we have sessions that cover Orion, the Eclipse M2M tools, BIRT, Gerrit, CDT, Dart, WindowBuilder, performance tuning in Eclipse, and the future of ALM. During the one day conference, Eclipse projects and Eclipse-based products created here at Google will also be highlighted.

In previous years some of the most popular sessions have been our Eclipse Ignite talks: 5-minute, 20-slide presentations by attendees sharing what they are doing with Eclipse.

A big thank you to Ian Skerrett and everyone at the Eclipse Foundation for assembling this great event. We are happy to welcome the Eclipse community to our campus and are always looking for ways to make this conference better. Please share your ideas and let us know your thoughts about this year’s program.

Pre-registration, which includes a $40 contribution to the Eclipse Foundation, is required for attendance. You may pre-register until December 11, 2012, 2pm PST.

By Alex Ruiz, Google Engineering Tools

EclipseCon ‘12 is Loaded with Googlers

EclipseCon 2012 begins today in Reston, Virginia with a veritable herd of Googlers on hand to teach, talk and generally hang out with the Eclipse community.

The information starts flowing at 9am on Tuesday when Googler Alex Russell delivers the opening keynote on “The Web Platform Is the Past, Present, and Future.”

But wait, there’s more:

Tuesday 3/27
Dan Rubel is speaking about Dart, a new open source programming language.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/dart-action

Alex Ruiz will talk about Xtext 2.x and lessons learned while developing custom editors at Google.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/xtext-success-story-google

Wednesday 3/28
Eric Clayberg will be talking about Building GUIs with WindowBuilder.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/building-guis-windowbuilder

Shawn Pearce is speaking on Gerrit and peer code reviews.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/harnessing-peer-code-reviews

Thursday 3/29
Last but not least, Sergey Prigogin is holding a session for beginners on C++ Refactoring.
http://www.eclipsecon.org/2012/sessions/c-refactoring-now-real

Hope to see you there!

By Cat Allman, Google Open Source Programs

Announcing WindowTester open source release

We are thrilled to announce the open sourcing release of WindowTester Pro, a solution that automates the process of GUI testing. WindowTester Pro is shipped as a Eclipse plugin and has support for Eclipse versions 3.5, 3.6 and 3.7. WindowTester Pro was previously offered by Instantiations Inc.

Using WindowTester Pro, developers can easily create tests for every GUI they create. The tests generated by WindowTester Pro are standard Java JUnit tests, thus they can be run within your Eclipse environment or they can be automated to run using Ant. Tests can be generated for SWT and Swing Java applications.

WindowTester Pro contains a recording console that captures and records keyboard clicks and mouse movements. The first step in test development is to turn on the Record feature and then work with various elements of the UI such as windows or buttons. WindowTester Pro will capture the steps taken.

Once the GUI has been exercised, the developer closes the application under test. When the application is closed, the recording is terminated and the test is generated.

Using WindowTester Pro empowers developers with testing capabilities and reduces the time required to hand-code tests. This enables developers to build quality into the product early in the process because problems are found and resolved earlier in the development cycle. WindowTester Pro can help developers and companies drastically lower both testing time and cost.

For more information, please visit the WindowTester Pro home page or join the discussion list.

The Googlers who made this open sourcing release possible include Eric Clayberg, Keerti Parthasarathy, Mark Russell, and Seth Hollyman.

By Keerti Parthasarathy, Software Engineer, Google

Eclipse Day at the Googleplex 2011

Here at Google, we use Eclipse every day to build our external and internal products, as well as building and releasing Eclipse tools. We are delighted to announce that we will be hosting Eclipse Day at Googleplex on November 30th. Hosting this event is one way to say “thank you” and contribute back to the community.

Eclipse Day is a 1-day conference that highlights Eclipse projects and Eclipse-based products created here at Google. It is also a great opportunity for both Eclipse contributors and users to network and share ideas.

This year we have sessions that cover Android Development Tools, Google Plug-in for Eclipse, WindowBuilder, EGit, m2eclipse, Eclipse 4, SWTBot, Orion, Hudson, a case study by NASA and Google’s use of Xtext.

In previous years some of the most popular sessions have been our Eclipse Ignite talks: 5-minute, 20-slide presentations by attendees that wish to show-off what they are doing with Eclipse.

All of us at Google would like to thank Ian Skerrett and everyone at the Eclipse Foundation for assembling this great event. We are happy to welcome the Eclipse community to our campus. We are always looking for ways to make this conference better! Please share your ideas and let us know your thoughts about this year’s program.

The conference is free, but you do need to pre-register. We strongly recommend you register early as we have run out of all of our slots every year.

By Alex Ruiz, Google Engineering Tools

Introducing protobuf-dt: An Eclipse editor for Protocol Buffers

Protobuf-dt is a new Eclipse plug-in for editing protocol buffer descriptor files. It provides all the features you would expect from an IDE editor, such as syntax highlighting, an outline view, content assist and hyperlinking.

Protobuf-dt also provides protocol buffer-specific features like automatic generation of numeric tags, Javadoc-like documentation and integration with protoc.

This plug-in has been heavily tested by Google employees in many different projects through seven internal releases. For more information, please visit our project page, join the mailing list and download the code.

To install the plugin, please follow these instructions.

By Alex Ruiz, Google Engineering Tools

Googler Eric Clayberg joins Eclipse Foundation Board

Google Software Engineering Manager Eric Clayberg has been elected by the Eclipse community as a Sustaining Member Representative on the Eclipse Foundation Board of Directors for the 2011-12 term. The announcement was made yesterday at the Annual General Meeting during the kick-off of EclipseCon 2011 in Santa Clara, CA. As a member of the Board of Directors, Eric will help oversee the policies and strategic direction of the Eclipse Foundation.

Eric works on the Google Plugin for Eclipse (GPE) team at Google and he was formerly with Instantiations, a company known for its focus on Eclipse Java developer tools, that was acquired by Google in 2010. Eric is also a Project Lead for the new open source WindowBuilder project at Eclipse.org. “I have been involved with Eclipse since 1999 and have always been a strong supporter of Eclipse community interests. I look forward to bringing Google scale thinking and inventiveness to my new role as board member.”

Google has been a longtime supporter of the the Eclipse Community. In addition to open sourcing Eclipse tools, Eclipse Labs is powered by Google Project Hosting and we have hosted Eclipse Days at the Googleplex in 2010, 2009, and 2008. Several Googlers will speak at EclipseCon sessions this year, including:

• WindowBuilder 101 and GWT App start to finish – Eric Clayberg
• GWT App start to finish and Building the Google Plugin for Eclipse: What We Learned – Rajeev Dayal, software engineer on the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) team.
• Android Development with Eclipse – Xavier Ducrohet, Tech lead for the Android SDK and developer tools, and Tor Norbye, software developer on the Android team
• Effective Git – Sean Pearce, lead on JGit project
• GWT App start to finish and Graphical Editing Framework (GEF) 101 – Dan Rubel, software engineer on the GWT team and formerly co-founder of Instantiations and Jaime Wren, Software Engineer on the GWT team

We hope to see you you at EclipseCon 2011!

Bruce Johnson and Chris Ramsdale, Google Developer Tools Team

WindowBuilder becomes new open source project

When Google acquired Instantiations, the maker of a suite of Java development tools, we made many of their Java Eclipse tools available for free as part of the Google Web Toolkit. Today, Google is donating the source code for WindowBuilder, an Eclipse Java GUI design tool, and CodePro Profiler, an analytics tool that identifies code performance issues, to the Eclipse Foundation. This represents a major code contribution–learn more about this release on the Google Code Blog.

By Eric Clayberg and the Google Developer Tools Team

Introducing the Workspace Mechanic for Eclipse

Hi Internet! I’m Robert Konigsberg, and I’ve spent the last four years working on a team that writes Eclipse plug-ins for our coworkers here at Google. I’m happy to announce that we’re open sourcing one of the tools our colleagues use every day: the Workspace Mechanic for Eclipse. I’m also excited that it is being released under version 1 of the Eclipse Public License (EPL).

The Workspace Mechanic is a publicly-released version of a tool we use at Google to automate maintenance of our engineers’ Eclipse environments. With the Mechanic, you can:

• Create a consistent environment for your entire company, your local team, or your own workspaces
• Save time setting up new workspaces
• Create tasks that ensure your favorite new preferences are applied to all your current and future workspaces. (This is one of our favorite features!)

We’re not the only ones who want a tool like this. In 2009, Ivar Meikas wrote a blog post titled “Wanted dead or alive - Eclipse configuration synchronizer!”

... why do I have to change the fonts each time I create a new workspace or turn on editor line numbers? There are some tricks, by specifying properties in some ini files, but this is really clumsy (Do you know the property name for the fonts? Without searching?). I think this is something that should be achievable without hacking.

So does anyone know if there is such a plugin that would help synchronize common properties or if there is interest for such a plugin?

Ivar, you want editor line numbers enabled in all your workspaces? Perfect; enabling that is documented as one of our examples. I hope this helps.


My colleague, Terry Parker, and I described the Workspace Mechanic at Eclipse Day at the Googleplex and at EclipseCon. Both times, people asked if we had plans to open source it. Well, yes. Yes we did.

I’m also proud that today’s announcement is part of the long-awaited launch of Eclipse Labs. The Workspace Mechanic is a perfect candidate for the Eclipse Labs, which brings the power of Google Code Project Hosting to a focused Eclipse community.

Today we are providing a code-only release. Enhancements and a p2 repository are on their way. Please check out the source code, join the mailing list, and send us your feedback.

By Robert Konigsberg, Software Engineer, Build Tools

Eclipse Day at the Googleplex 2009

After months of anticipation, we finally put on Eclipse Day at the Googleplex, 2009. This event was hosted by the Google Open Source Programs Office, and really, they did a great job. Seriously big thanks to Chris DiBona, Shawn Pearce, Leslie Hawthorn, Cat Allman and Ellen Ko, who put together a fantastic program. I must also thank Ian Skerrett and Lynn Gayowski of the Eclipse Foundation for all the work they did putting together such a solid program. Ian actually sat right next to me while we were listening to one of the final talks "Google Plugin for Eclipse: Not Just for Newbies Anymore" given by my Google colleague, Miguel Méndez. Miguel demonstrated how the Google Plugin for Eclipse deals with launch configurations. I was drooling.

We had a full house of guests that came to hear about Eclipse: modeling, DSLs, OSGi, Android, and Eclipse in enterprise environments: Google, eBay and NASA. In fact, my teammate, Terry Parker, and I gave the keynote presentation, titled "Eclipse in the Enterprise: Lessons from Google" which was a glimpse into what it takes to support all the people at Google who build applications with Eclipse.

Thanks to everyone who came. It was a pleasure meeting all of you.

You can check out the talk abstracts and slides, or check out the videos below. Happy hacking!

By Robert Konigsberg, Software Engineering Team

Check Out the Talks from Eclipse Day at the Googleplex

By Robert Konigsberg, Software Engineer and Eclipse Enthusiast

You may recall our recent post about Eclipse Day at the Googleplex. We're happy to let you know that all the talks from the main conference track are now available for your viewing pleasure:

• Introduction & Keynote: Eclipse at Ebay by Michael Galpin, with introduction by Ian Skerrett


• How Mylyn Changes the Way I Develop by Bjorn Freeman-Benson


• Tools Make the Difference: GWT in Eclipse by Bruce Johnson


• Plug-in Development Tips and Tricks by Chris Aniszczyk


• Wiring Hacker Synapses: Collaborative Coding and Team Tooling in Eclipse by Scott Lewis & Mustafa K. Isik

Enjoy, and let us know what you think!

Another Busy "While" for Open Source Googlers

By Cat Allman, Open Source Team

With a tip of the hat to Lewis Carroll's Mad Hatter, it's a busy "while" for the Open Source Team here at Google.

Leslie Hawthorn is in Durban, South Africa, speaking at the Third OpenMRS Implementers Meeting, 17-20 June 2008. The meeting is being held in conjunction with HISA 2008, the annual conference of the South African Health Informatics Association. OpenMRS is a community developed, Open Source, enterprise electronic medical record system framework, specifically intended to help those actively building and managing health systems in the developing world, where AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria afflict the lives of millions. If you are interested in Open Source health informatics and/or health care in developing parts of the world, take a look at the project.

Yesterday our office in Mountain View CA hosted the Creative Commons Technology Summit. Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that builds tools that help realize the full potential of the commons in the age of digital networks. Their first technology summit brought together many parties interested in making sure "Copyright 2.0" facilitates rather than hinders innovation and the open web. The summit included an update and overview of Creative Commons technologies, panels featuring other leaders in open digital rights technologies, and a look at the future, including the role of digital copyright registries (and similar animals). Check out the online coverage, and stay tuned for the video of the event, which we will post soon.

Also this week, the GCC Developers Summit, sponsored in part by Google, returned to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada for a 3 day "meeting of the minds" by the core development team behind the GNU Compiler Collection. Several Googlers presented; Vinodha Ramasamy spoke on Feedback Directed Optimization using Synthetic Edge Profiles from Hardware Event Sampling, Ian Lance Taylor gave a talk about A New ELF Linker, and Diego Novillo gave a tutorial on Tuples - A new data structure and API for GIMPLE.

Next week we are hosting another conclave in Mountain View, California, USA; Eclipse Day will be held on June 24. This half day event for developers is a chance to learn about different Eclipse projects and related technologies. Googlers speaking include Sergey Prigogin on What's New in CDT Ganymede , Bruce Johnson on Tools Make the Difference: GWT in Eclipse, and Xavier Ducrohet on Android's Eclipse Toolset . Unfortunately / fortunately, the event is completely full, and registration including the waiting list is closed, so if you are not already registered you can't join us, but watch for reports on the event later next week.

Also next week, USENIX Annual Technical Conference will be held in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Googler David Presotto is chairing the Short Paper Session at this venerable but always tasty technical conference.

It's shaping up to be a busy summer... :)

Ed. Note: Post updated to fix formatting.