I'm just starting to upgrade from v2 to v3, and getting all the new tools installed and set up. I always found Hibern8IDE to be really useful for debugging and resolving query issues. Now as far as I can see the new version is available as an Eclipse plugin, and nothing else.

Is there really no standalone version of this any more? Because I do not use Eclipse and do not intend to install it (currently using JBuilder, considering moving to NetBeans in the near future). Do I seriously have to put a whole development platform on my computer just to use a querying tool?

I'm sure I must have this wrong, it makes absolutely no sense. I just can't see any other options in the documentation.

the plan is to have a standalone version available at some point.
That version will basically be a stripped down eclipse.

Please note that the tools now includes much more than just the query console, so it were too cumbersome to maintain a pure raw swing implementation and thus we decided to focus on a eclipse based setup.

So currently your best option is to install eclipse, but besides the extra megabytes on the disk what is the problem with that ?

/max

I'm not sure if the new software needs the whole of Eclipse, or just makes heavy use of SWT. It's good to have tools packaged as plugins for IDEs, but not exclusively as a plugin, and not exclusively for one specific IDE.

I have a lot of respect for the Hibernate system, and for the team who invest so much of their own time and effort into making it a great product for the rest of us to use. I just think this particular design decision was either misguided, or (tin foil hat on) was some kind of covert attempt to spread the use of Eclipse.

So, when can we expect your contributions to this standalone version of the Hibernate Tools?

..eh - and what is the difference for you wether it uses Swing or EclipseRCP ? You just use it as a tool - so you don't need to care what technology which is below it, correct ? ;)

anyways, it was not a misguided decision - it was/is the solution that makes most sense and hits the biggest audience and still can be kept small in distribution when doing the "non-ide-required-features-packaging"

you can use swing and eclipse rcp , ever (on linux and windows only for now)

swing + EclipseRCP does not make sense as long as it performs like s*it on linux and does not work on Mac.

Currently the only options are pure Swing + homegrown infrastructure or SWT + EclipseRCP as the infrastructure. Right now the last option is *the* best option. And trust me, i'm a pure full breed swing programmer, and I don't like SWT (design wise) - but I really see too much benefit on/from the Eclipse RCPlatform to let it pass.

Mind you I/we try to keep stuff seperate from the specific IDE stuff, but certain aspects need to tie into the IDE as seperating them will just be alot of wasted effort for keeping things seperate with no benefit to the user.

Max,
I agree complete.Swing gui is better than SWT (last version SWT have image with text in button - big deal, JTable, special JXtable form swingx is more better than swt table ...), but eclipse rcp is the best framework and i think that your choice is fine
however, swing + homegrown isn't only alternative - netbeans have rcp framework with swing
it is in devlopment yet, but it have desktop framework, action framework, jobs, wizards ...

netbeans platform is just too late.