Chapter 1. Eclipse as a Rich Client Platform

The term rich client was coined in the early 1990s with the rush to build client applications using the likes of Visual Basic and Delphi. The dramatic increase in the number and popularity of these client applications was due in part to the desire for a “rich” user experience.

Rich clients support a high-quality end-user experience for a particular domain by providing rich native user interfaces (UIs) as well as high-speed local processing. Rich UIs support native desktop metaphors such as drag-and-drop, system clipboard, navigation, and customization. When done well, a rich client is almost transparent between an end-user and their work—fostering focus on the work and not the system. The term rich client ...

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