Idea as a tools platform?

Hello Igor,

There's plenty of pretty good RCP platforms out there already as you've correctly
mentioned. Most of them are free, well documented and backed by large software
corporations with particulary unlimited resources, you've noticed also. Now,
why bother going to compete on this new market?

-

Maxim Shafirov
JetBrains, Inc
http://www.jetbrains.com
"Develop with pleasure!"

Many friends of mine were willing to develop Idea plugins some time
ago, but all of them failed.. because "it is not stable..", "there is
no documentation" or "the languguage API is not just usable..".. and
they develop Eclipse plugins now. Some of them are eclipsers now..
unfortunately.. but not surprisingly. They have their reasons. They
have the tools they need in Eclipse.

We need tools, but JB is not able to develop all of them.

Why is it possible to develop e.g. a sound editor with NetBeans?
Because it's a free platform. And it will be just a sound editor
without java support at all. And you can sell this editor. And it
makes sense to do it.

Can you develop it as Idea plugin? Yes, but nobody will pay extra $500
for EJB support in sound editor.

To JB: Are there any plans to make a core of IDEA a free 'platform',
like Eclipse or NetBeans? I mean the toolwindows, menus, actions,
plugins container, configuration, plain-text editor etc? It should not
necessary be open source, just free and documented. And we will pay
for the rest.

'The platform' will not create cash but it will create volume. And it
will be converted to cash in the long run. Even when L&F of a new app
is familiar you feel "at home"..