IWorkbench. The API makes it straightforward to programmatically open URLs from plug-ins. URLs are opened in internal or external browsers, depending on user preferences. Browser support is pluggable and Eclipse provides an RCP-friendly reference implementation in the new org.eclipse.ui.browser plug-in.
In addition, the internal web browser is registered as a non-default editor for the most common HTML extensions.
Platform Runtime
Single JAR plug-ins
Eclipse now provides the ability to ship a plug-in packaged as a single JAR file rather than as a directory of files. Think of this as folding the plug-in metadata (plugin.xml etc.) into its code JAR. This move has a number of benefits ranging from smaller footprint to easier/faster install to fitting better with the standard Java notion of JARs. More information can be found on the Core team web page.
In Eclipse 3.1 M6 all of the RCP base plug-ins and a few extra (over 25 in total) are shipped as JARs in all distributions (RCP, Platform, PDE, JDT , etc drops). For M7 we expect the vast majority of Eclipse plug-ins to be JAR'd.
JAR'd plug-ins are the new best practice for Eclipse packaging.
SWT
Strike through and underline in StyledText
Text can be underlined or a strike can be drawn through it with the new StyleRange.underline and StyleRange.strikeout fields.
For more details see the example snippet.
Spinner supports decimal values
The Spinner widget can display decimal values using the Spinner.setDigits() API. Decimal values can be used for the minimum, maximum, increment and selection values.
For more details see the example snippet.
Emulated table improvements
Some platforms such as Motif and Photon do not provide a native table widget and for these platforms SWT provides an emulated table implementation. In M6, this implementation was largely re-written. Many bugs were fixed and some features were enabled such as re-orderable columns and Table.showColumn().
Tree supports indices
New API has been added so that items in a Tree can be referenced by index. The index is relative to the immediate parent which for top level nodes is the Tree and for sub-nodes is the parent TreeItem. The new API includes Tree/TreeItem.indexOf(TreeItem) and Tree/TreeItem.getItem(index). In addition, you can remove the children of a tree item using TreeItem.removeAll().
Platform Text
Preference for undo history size
The undo history size can now be set for text editors; see the General > Editors > Text Editors preference page:
Ant
Mark Occurrences in the Ant editor
You can now enable the Ant editor to mark occurrences of properties and targets. Mark occurrences is controlled via the Ant editor preferences and editor toolbar action.
More control over error reporting in the Ant editor
You can now set the Ant editor to ignore all buildfile problems. As well you can specify specific buildfile names that the editor should not report problems for. Both settings are controlled using the Ant editor preferences for Problems. See bug 84307 for full details
