Echo2 Needs a Better Way for Third Party’s to Contribute

Dietrich Kappe, Friday, December 8, 2006 @ 8:05 pm

There are two big dogs in the world of Echo2:

1. NextApp (with Echo2 creator Tod Liebeck) which releases Echo2, Echo2Studio (Eclipse Plugin) and Echo2Extras (more components).
2. EchopointNG (run by Brad Baker), a collection of more Echo2 components.

Aside from the fact that EchopointNG needs a real project web site of it's own instead of the Echo 1 stuff that's on there now, there is no easy way for developers to contribute components to Echo2. Right now you have to go crawling around the forums, looking for contributions in zip files. Someone should put together a contribution repository. I know that organizing and maintaining such a repository is no small thing, but components are the lifeblood of any component GUI. If Echo2 doesn't keep up with GWT, ZK, Tibco and all the rest, it won't matter how elegant its design, etc. Developers will go where the widgets are and two projects won't do the trick.

Maybe I need to step up to the plate. But I'd hate to have to drop it for lack of time. I need to think about this some more.

In the meantime, a new Beta 5 release of Echo2, Echo2Extras and Echo2Studio is out. A few fixes, many around IE6, and opacity-based fades for the TransitionPane component. The RC's for Echo2 are close.

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