4. The Eclipse plug-in

The aim behind developing a desktop IDE for GF is to provide more powerful tools than may be possible and/or practical in a web-based setting. In particular, the ability to resolve cross-references between source files and libraries instantaneously during development time is one of the primary goals and motivations for the project.

The choice was made to develop this desktop IDE as a plugin for the Eclipse Platform as it seemed to be the most popular choice among the GF developer community. Support for the platform is vast and many tools for adapting Eclipse to domain-specific languages already exist. Unlike the zero-click WIDE approach, using the GF Eclipse plugin (GFEP) will require some manual installation and configuration on the development machine. Thus the GFEP is aimed more at seasoned developers rather than just the curious.