Eclipse RCP
Pros
- Rich-featured, sophisticated, highly configurable and extendible application framework
- Straight forward plug-in manifests files (plugin.xml) using the "extension point" paradigm (plug-ins provide extensions to existing plug-ins and provide extension points for future plug-ins)
- Uses industry-prooven OSGi technology (Equinox) as plug-in lifecycle framework
Cons
- Uses SWT for UI
- Java AWT is completely ignored in the framework, thus many classes re-implemented (Rectangle, ...)
- Poor imaging support
NetBeans Platform
Pros
- Uses Swing for UI
- Simple window system, client UIs are always a TopComponent
- Simple command management, commands are simple swing actions
Cons
- Only one application frame allowed (only a single command and menu container exists)
- Limited programmatic layout of views (unless one becomes a "WindowSystem provider")
- No undocking of views
- Cryptic and strange plug-in manifests files (layer.xml) using the "file system" paradigm (everything is either a file or folder)
Spring RCP
Pros
- ?
Cons
- Only version 0.1 available (May 2006)
- No view management
- No plug-in lifecycle framework