Eclipse RCP

Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) is a framework that allows developers to build rich, extensible desktop applications using the same core components and plugin architecture as the Eclipse IDE. It leverages the Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) for native-looking user interfaces and OSGi for…

Key facts

First appeared: 2004
Category: technology
Problem solved: Eclipse RCP solved the problem of building complex, extensible, cross-platform desktop applications from scratch. It provided a ready-made framework for managing application lifecycle, user interfaces, preferences, update mechanisms, and modularity, significantly reducing development effort and promoting consistency and extensibility across large-scale projects.
Platforms: macOS, Linux, Windows

Related technologies

OSGi (Equinox)
PDE (Plug-in Development Environment)
Java
JFace
SWT (Standard Widget Toolkit)
GEF (Graphical Editing Framework)
EMF (Eclipse Modeling Framework)

Notable users

SAP
Ericsson
Many companies in scientific, engineering, and embedded systems domains
IBM (historically for many internal and external products)
Siemens