Contributing to Eclipse: Principles, Patterns, and Plug-Ins

Chapter 8. Defining an Extension Point

One early reviewer commented, “I just want to know how to write plug-ins. I don't really want to learn how to declare new extension points. There are hundreds of plug-ins out there and almost none of them enable new extension points.” Eclipse is great fun for writing little plug-ins, but if you aren't declaring new extension points, you're missing out on much of the power of the platform. When children are taught to ice skate in Switzerland, they begin skating forwards and backwards the first day. Skating backwards is just never scary if that's how you learn. We believe creating extension points doesn't need to be scary, but you need to start creating extension points early. Once you get good at creating ...