Platform
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SWT on Vista (win32)
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SWT now gets everything right on Microsoft Vista.
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New DateTime styles
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The DateTime control now supports the SWT.SHORT, SWT.MEDIUM, and SWT.LONG styles.
(This example snippet created the above snapshots.) |
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New graphics line drawing capabilities
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SWT graphics now supports much finer control of line attributes, including fractional line widths, dashed line offsets, and miter limits. These capabilities are provided by the new LineAttributes class and the new GC methods get/setLineAttributes.
(This example snippet created the above snapshot.) |
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SWT libraries automatically found
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The SWT libraries are now loaded from the SWT jar when an SWT application is launched. Within Eclipse, you can just use the Run As > Java Application menu item and the libraries will be found. When launching from the command line, you no longer need to specify the SWT library path. |
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Show invisible whitespace characters
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It is now possible to see the invisible whitespace characters in textual editors:
This feature can either be controlled via General > Editors > Text Editors > Show whitespace characters preference, or via the [ ] tool bar button when the Editor Presentation action set is enabled. |
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Spell checking in text editor
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Spell checking is now also available in the text editor:
Clients that want to enhance their editor have to install a reconciler and a quick assist assistant. See TextSourceViewerConfiguration for a template. |
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Improved text diffing algorithm
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The algorithm used to calculate the differences between two text files has been improved. As a result, changes that used to take a long time to calculate now take a matter of seconds. |
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Settings transfers when switching workspaces
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When you switch workspaces you can now transfer some of your current settings with you. The Platform provides a transfer for workbench layout and working sets.
Other plug-ins can contribute more specialized transfers via the org.eclipse.ui.preferenceTransfers extension point.
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Busy spinner in view tab
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Where IWorkbenchSiteProgressService#showBusyForFamily is used, the view will now show a busy spinner in the tab.
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Custom tooltips for tree and table cells
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TreeViewer and TableViewer now support custom tooltips on a per cell basis. See org.eclipse.jface.viewers.CellLabelProvider.
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Advanced tooltips
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JFace now supports tooltips that supply a Composite for more complex tooltips. See org.eclipse.jface.window.Tooltip.
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Improved display of table of contents
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The table of contents in the help window has a number of visual and performance improvements.
- More than one book can be opened at a time.
- Performance has been improved by reducing the amount of data sent from the server when a book is opened.
- A new icon, an open book with pen indicates which container nodes also have associated content.
- Navigation using arrow keys works consistently across the tree.
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Improved dynamic user assistance content
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Dynamic content is now fully supported for all user assistance XML documents, which means you can filter, include, extend or replace sections of documents for any of the user assistance document types. These include:
- Welcome pages (XML or XHTML) and contributions
- Help XHTML topics, table of contents, keyword index, and context-sensitive help
- Cheat sheets, both simple and composite
You can also define your own filter criteria and use boolean operators to achieve greater flexibility with filtering by using XML expressions in any of the documents listed above. |
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Added control of help/welcome content ordering
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The help table of contents and welcome items will now be arranged in a more meaningful order when multiple products and documentation sets are installed. All available products' preferences will be taken into consideration, and products may now use an external XML file similar to welcome's to specify their preferred order and visibility of entries in the table of contents. |
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Background initialization and update of Compare editors
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Compare editors are now initialized in the background so that the UI remains responsive while the contents of the files being compared are fetched. The calculation and update of the structure differences also occurs in the background. |
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Apply Patch supports manual application of unmatched patch segments
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The CVS Apply Patch wizard now allows you to manually apply any unmatched patch segments to the local file. No more digging through *.rej files! |
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History view now has view history
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The History view now allows you to navigate back to previously viewed elements.
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StartupMonitor
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The Eclipse Starter now provides a StartupMonitor interface which allows a client to register to be given processing time on the main thread while Eclipse is starting up.
The Startup monitor is run during times where the main thread would otherwise have been waiting for secondary threads to finish. It provides the perfect opportunity for the client to perform thread sensitive updates like, for example, painting a splash screen. |
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New Application Model
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The Eclipse application model now implements the Application Admin Service from the OSGi specification. The net result is a more flexible application container. For example, applications can now be specified to allow more than one to run at a time. The lifecycle of an application has also been improved to allow applications to be properly shut down if the framework is shut down unexpectedly.
Eclipse applications can now implement org.eclipse.equinox.app.IApplication to take full advantage of the new application model. See the org.eclipse.core.runtime.applications extension point for more details on the options that can be specified for application extensions. |
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Long resource paths on Windows
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Where the underlying file system allows it, you can now create resources with paths longer than 260 characters on Windows. This requires a Java 1.5 VM or greater.
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All plug-ins are now signed
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All plug-ins in Eclipse project builds are now signed using a cryptographic signature provided by the Eclipse Foundation. This allows you to authenticate that the content you receive from the download server matches the content on eclipse.org. Eclipse update manager will also authenticate the signatures on these plug-ins when they are provided from an update site. |
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Automatically showing console
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Toggle buttons have been added to the console toolbar controlling when the console is automatically displayed. The buttons provide quick access to the workspace preferences to show the console when output is written to standard out or standard error.
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Pluggable detail panes
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API has been added to the debug platform allowing custom detail panes to be contributed to the Variables view. Clients may use any SWT control to render custom details for their variables. A context menu allows users to choose between available detail panes for each variable. See the new extension point org.eclipse.debug.ui.detailPaneFactories.
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JDT
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Refactoring without save
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Refactorings don't require all editors to be saved any more. They can now operate even if Java or text editors are still dirty. Note that this feature only works for textual editors that use a TextFileDocumentProvider.
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Type generation during reconcile
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Java 5 annotation processing (APT) was introduced in Eclipse 3.2, but until now, new types could only be generated by doing a build. As of 3.3M4, annotation processors can generate new types on the fly, as you edit the annotations. |
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Access rules for execution environments
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Access rules are now assigned to each execution environment based on its profile. For example, rules prevent access to com.sun.* packages that are not guaranteed to be present at runtime. The rules are only applied to projects that are bound to execution environments. Projects bound to a specific JRE still have access to all of its libraries.
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Grouping of JARs and class folders in Package Explorer
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The Package Explorer now groups referenced libraries in a new container node.
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Undo Delete in Package Explorer
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Edit > Undo is now also available for deletions of Java elements in the Package Explorer and other Java views. Accidentally deleted packages, compilation units, etc. can easily be restored by pressing Ctrl+Z. |
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Refactoring and derived files
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Derived files are often regenerated during a build, and all manual changes in such files are overwritten. To prevent lost work, Refactoring actions now show a warning when you try to refactor a declaration from a derived file.
In the refactoring preview, you can now choose to filter out the less interesting changes in derived files. 
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More quick assists
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Functionality that was previously only available in the Refactoring menu is now also offered as quick assists (Ctrl+1). As always, quick assists don't show a dialog, but enters the linked mode where you can change names or types that have been introduced.
- Extract to local variable and Extract to constant: select an expression in the code
- Inline local variable: available on a variable name
- Convert local variable to field: available on a variable name
- Convert anonymous to local type: Select the type name of an anonymous class
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New code formatter options
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Some new options have been added to the code formatter preference page (Java > Code Style > Formatter)
- The number of blank lines that Organize Imports (Ctrl+Shift+O) inserts between import groups can be configured on the 'Blank Lines' tab. When formatting, this setting will take precedence over the number of blank lines to preserve.
- For return statements, you can now add or remove whitespace before the parenthesized expression of the throw statement. This option is available on 'White Space' tab of the code formatter profile:
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Improved Javadoc comment checking
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Compiler handling of Javadoc comments has been improved to better align with the behavior of the Javadoc tool:
- Javadoc does not allow inexact method references. The compiler now reports a warning when such invalid references are used:
- When the source level is less than 1.5, Javadoc only allows inline tags {@value} for static fields. The compiler now reports a warning if @value is used elsewhere:
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Improved handling of duplicate local types
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Duplicate local types in Java code are now handled better.
- Type references through a duplicate variable now refers to latest definition of the local type, which reduces the number of secondary errors reported.
- Compilation can now penetrate deeper in the presence of duplicate local types, allowing more errors or diagnostics to be uncovered. For instance, it will report unresolved references inside duplicate local types method statements.
- Local rename (Ctrl+2 R) can now operate, allowing you to quickly fix the name of the duplicate type in all the places it appears.
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Improved diagnostics for generic type casts
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More warnings are now reported while checking unchecked and raw type usage in cast expressions. The messages for unchecked casts were also improved:
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JUnit Compare dialog non-modal
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The JUnit Compare dialog is not modal any more. This makes it easier to copy expected and actual results for further processing.
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PDE
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Target platform provisioning via file system
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PDE now allows the dynamic addition of plug-in locations to the target platform by simply pressing Add on the Plug-in Development > Target Platform preference page.
PDE provides a file system provisioner to augment the content of the target platform with plug-ins located in the file system.
Additional types of provisioners (e.g. an Update Manager provisioner) can be declared via the org.eclipse.pde.ui.targetProvisioners extension point.
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RCP templates for new application model
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The Eclipse 3.3 runtime defines a new application model that affords better control of an Eclipse application's lifecycle.
When an Eclipse 3.3 target is specified in the New Plug-in Project wizard, the RCP application templates generated will use this new application model.
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Quick outline in plug-in editor source pages
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When editing a source in the plug-in manifest editor, pressing Ctrl+O or selecting Navigate > Quick Outline from the top level menu shows you a quick outline.
The quick outline has many of the sizing and filtering options that are available in the Java editor's quick outline.
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Bundle a JRE in your RCP product
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When exporting an Eclipse product, you now have the option to bundle a JRE in a jre/ subdirectory inside the product. By default, this JRE will be used when the product runs.
This feature is useful if you want your product with a specific JRE or if the end user of your product may not have a JRE installed on their system.
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Flag for non-exported packages in the MANIFEST.MF file
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PDE now provides a flag on the MANIFEST.MF file when the list of exported packages of the plug-in is incomplete. This feature is a useful reminder when you wish to expose all your plug-in code to downstream clients.
By default, the severity of this flag is set to IGNORE, but it can be raised to WARNING or ERROR at a global level via the Plug-in Development > Compilers > Plug-ins > Non-exported Packages preference. It can also be set on a per-project basis on the Plug-in Development > Compilers property page of a plug-in project.
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