Genuitec Hones Eclipse Tool Set

With the forthcoming release of MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench 4.1, Genuitec LLC is going after the Web 2.0 developer by adding Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, or AJAX, support to its Eclipse-based integrated development environment.

MyEclipse 4.1, the latest release of the Plano, Texas, companys IDE, will be available for download Dec. 15, Genuitec officials said.

With the new version, Genuitec is proving its tool set can span the Java application development life cycle, from heavyweight J2EE (Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition) development to lighter-weight Java-based alternative frameworks such as Hibernate and Spring. In addition, the company will be providing a low-cost IDE based on the open-source Eclipse platform and will still make money, said Maher Masri, president of Genuitec.

MyEclipse 4.1 will support AJAX, offer an integrated image editor and include other new Web 2.0 development capabilities, said Todd Williams, vice president of technology at Genuitec.

Williams said Genuitec announced the release of MyEclipse Enterprise Workbench 4.0 at the end of August but had been working on adding AJAX support several months before that. MyEclipse 4.0s release extended Version 3.1 of the Eclipse open-source application development to include support for UML (Unified Modeling Language), XML, Struts, JSF (JavaServer Faces) and other technologies.

MyEclipse 4.1 offers Web 2.0 development features such as early access to W2TP (Web 2.0 Tools Platform), for lightweight next-generation post-J2EE Java Web applications; an Eclipse-based, full-featured image editor with an extensive image framework; and new Eclipse-based AJAX tools that include integrated JavaScript editing and debugging capabilities.

Wayne Parrot, Genuitecs vice president of operations, said the company continues to look at Web 2.0 technologies and lighter-weight development alternatives.

"Our tool set, we think, will hit a sweet spot not being addressed at the moment," he said.

Part of that is seen in MyEclipses support for Hibernate and Spring, two popular development frameworks that many developers use together, but whose creators dont get along so well. MyEclipse is acting like a neutral party in this situation, the company said.

"Were making them [Hibernate and Spring] fit together so you can easily use them and switch between them," Parrot said.

Masri said this is part of Genuitecs response to developer "resistance to the complexity of the J2EE stack. That trend is not likely to stop, because people like the simplified solutions. And thats something weve been about since Day One—helping our customers write applications quickly."

Wayne Townsend-Merino, a developer at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, in La Jolla, Calif., said MyEclipse has helped SDSC more easily code, debug, test and deploy applications. Townsend-Merino said that cycle "went from minutes to seconds" with MyEclipse.

Meanwhile, Parrot said Genuitec is "looking closely at Ruby on Rails," another lightweight Web development platform, for possible support in an upcoming release of MyEclipse.

With MyEclipse 4.1, Genuitec maintains its low pricing for the tool set. The Standard Editions annual subscription price is $29.95; the Professional Edition costs $49.95. The Professional Edition includes UML support, an Oracle database connector and JavaScript debugging.