[lenik]

I have spent a lot of time to wait to restart the eclipse IDE, every time I changed a plugin(XYZ), I must:
1) quit the eclipse
2) delete the previous version of the plugin(XYZ)
3) launch eclipse, to clear the plugin cache
4) quit again
5) put the new version of the plugin(XYZ) under dropins/ folder
6) launch eclipse again, now the new plugin(XYZ) is loaded.
I don't know how you guys develop plugins, I've searched how to `reload a plugin' but got nothing, all said must restart the eclipse and sometimes you need to specify `eclipse -clean' for a more cleaned restart.

And I've tried wrap my plugins in a `feature', and put that `feature' in an `update-site', then `install' the feature. And when you want to reload the plugin, you can `uninstall' it and then `install' it, but it doesn't work!

And I even don't know what a `feature' really is, why not call it `plugins-bundle' or `enterprise plugin' etc. And why not make the plugin just reloadable, or even auto reload at runtime by checking the modification time of the jar file, just as most JSP Container(tomcat, resin, etc.) did.

How are you writing plugins for eclipse? Is there any better way to reload a plugin?

Thanks,
Lenik

[jsugrue]

Well you can run an instance of Eclipse, with selected plugins from your workspace used in the launch. This would at least save you from all this deployment..

Let me know if you need further details.
James