Month: April 2004

Eclipse RCP

The Eclipse IDE has made a big change in the 3.0 release. The framework used for the plug-in model, and the system services have been “unbolted” from the IDE. This new layer is called the Rich Client Platform (RCP). After spending a few days going through the plug-in class material, reading doc, and writing sample code I’ve convinced of one thing – it could be easier. The documentation is lacking. The only online tutorials for RCP are not real useful, but they do show the most complicated Hello World sample I’ve ever seen! That being said, I like it and am starting to use it for the card game platform. Is it better than NetBeans for RC? I don’t know. So far the widget library (SWT) has made me want to use the Swing widget library, which I’ve never liked. Time will tell…

Jacksonville IL Coffeeshops

Went up to Jacksonville, IL for my Dad’s retirement party. Decided to visit both the new coffeeshops in town while I was there.

1) Shop #1. Old wonderful 3 story building in old town. Unfortunately old town is not very busy. The shop used home equipment (Capresso brewers) and a home superautomatic espresso machine. The grinder looked like a mazzer mini. Coffee was decent, probably not fresh roasted. Quality of foam wasn’t great. Closed on Sunday and Monday and doesn’t open until 8AM???? How they’ll pay that A/C bill in the summer I don’t know!

2) Shop #2. On the main strip and gets a lot of drive by traffic. Looked like a sub shop on the inside with a roaster in the corner and a small band area in another. Espresso machine was filthy with cooked on milk 3 inches up the wand (preparation problem). No crema on the espresso I didn’t drink 🙂 Had some lunchtime activity but I’d be surprised if they take in more than $700/day. According to my family it is popular on the weekend with the teens since they have a lot of music.

Happy retirement Dad…!