SummaryOne of the reasons for the success of Eclipse is that it is essentially an opensource platform for creating an extensible integrated developmentenvironment. Because it is open source anyone can build tools that integrateseamlessly with the environment and other tools.Plugins are what make this seamless integration of tools with Eclipse possible.With the exception of a small run-time kernel, everything in Eclipse is a plugin.This means that any plug-in you develop integrates with Eclipse in exactlythe same way as other plug-ins.This book provides an introduction and overview of the entire process of plugindevelopment, including all the best practices to achieve high-quality results.It is a reference book for experienced Eclipse developers. It also discusses theAPIs and demonstrates many samples and examples. Detailed tutorials areprovided for both new and experienced developers. The Eclipse SWT UI isintroduced as the building block for Eclipse UI development.Author(s) ExpertiseERIC CLAYBERG (Middleton, MA)is Senior VP for Product Developmentfor Instantiations, an Advanced IBM Business Partner and leading developer ofcommercial add-ons for Eclipse, IBM VisualAge, and IBM WebSphere.DAN RUBEL (Glenshaw, PA), Instantations' CTO, is an entrepreneur andexpert in object-oriented design and development. He has served as primaryarchitect and product manager for several successful commercial products.AudienceTarget audience is Eclipse users who want to customize the IDE, e.g., todevelop tools for their company's employees or to sell tools that connect totheir products. This book assumes the reader knows Java and how to useEclipse and has a fairly good understanding of the Standard Widget Toolkit(SWT) and, or, Swing.The CD/DVD/Web SiteCode samples, errata, tools used in the book and other resources availableonline at the authors' web site-- www.qualityeclipse.com