Xpand/Reviews/1.4.0

This page provides the required docuware for the Xpand 1.4.0 (Kepler) Release Review.

Overview

Xpand is a subproject of Modeling/M2T.

The Xpand generator framework provides textual languages, that are useful in different contexts in the MDSD process (e.g. validation, metamodel extensions, code generation, model transformation). Each language (Xpand,Xtend,Check) is built upon a common expression language and type system. Therefore, they can operate on the same models, metamodels and meta-metamodels and you do not need to learn the syntax again and again, because it is always the same.

The expressions framework provides a uniform abstraction layer over different meta-meta-models (e.g. EMF Ecore, Eclipse UML2, JavaBeans, XML Schema etc.). Additionally, it offers a powerful, statically typed expressions language, which is used in the various textual languages.

Features

New in this release

• This release is a maintenance release
• See New and Noteworthy Wiki page

Non-Code Aspects

• API Tooling based on 1.3.0 was set up

APIs

See [[1]]

• The project lead certifies that the requirements for Eclipse Quality APIs have been met for this release.

Architecture

No change.

Tool Usability

No change.

Project Health

The Xpand project is in maintenance mode. The technology as been superseded by Xtend, which is becoming a mature technology with some concepts similar to Xpand. Some existing projects are migrating to Xtend, but there are still large projects that are actively using Xpand.

To solve some of the known bugs API changes would be required, which would require a major release. It is open, if a major release will be done with Eclipse Luna. This will be decided when planning of Luna begins.

It can be expected that Xpand will be further supported, without adding substantially new features. Resolving the existing bugs is first priority.

End-of-Life

Some classes/methods have been marked deprecated, which are subject for removal for a potential major release Xpand 2.0. The code is still valid for this release.

See [[2]]

Bugzilla

Bugzilla snapshot for Xpand as of June 3rd, 2013.

Standards

No standards.

UI Usability

• Xpand 1.4 conforms to Eclipse User Interface Guidelines
• Eclipse platform standard i18n support used where applicable/possible; stand-alone deployment uses equivalent J2SE APIs
• ICU4J is used

Schedule

• 1.4.0 - June 26th 2013 (Kepler)
• 1.5.0/2.0.0 - June 2014 (Luna) - not decided yet if major release is done

Xpand is a “+2” project in the simultaneous release.

Communities

• Interaction in Bugzilla
• Activity in the Eclipse Forum
  
• Collaboration with other projects at Eclipse (Xtext, EMF, MWE)
  

Committer

No change.

Project Leads

• Sven Efftinge
  
• Karsten Thoms
  

Committers

• Andre Arnold (Independent)
  
• Sven Efftinge (itemis)
  
• Moritz Eysholdt (itemis)
• Dennis Huebner (itemis)
• Darius Jockel (itemis)
• Jan Koehnlein (itemis)
• Karsten Thoms (itemis)
• Sebastian Zarnekow (itemis)
  

Activity

Only activity by Karsten Thoms and Dennis Hübner for the current release.

IP Issues

The M2T Xpand project leadership verifies that:

• the about files and use licenses are in place as per the Guidelines to Legal Documentation.
• all contributions (code, documentation, images, etc) have been committed by individuals who are either Members of the Foundation, or have signed the appropriate Committer Agreement. In either case, these are individuals who have signed, and are abiding by, the Eclipse IP Policy.
• all significant contributions have been reviewed by the Foundation's legal staff.
• all non-Committer code contributions, including third-party libraries, have been documented in the release and reviewed by the Foundation's legal staff.
• all Contribution Questionnaires have been completed.
• the "provider" field of each plug-in is set to "Eclipse Modeling Project“.
• the "copyright" field of each feature is set to the copyright owner (the Eclipse Foundation is rarely the copyright owner).
• any third-party logos or trademarks included in the distribution (icons, help file logos, etc) have been licensed under the EPL.
• any fonts or similar third-party images included in the distribution (e.g. in PDF or EPS files) have been licensed under the EPL.

The approved Xpand project IP log is located at Bug#409825

Project Plan

The current project plan is available from http://www.eclipse.org/projects/project-plan.php?projectid=modeling.m2t.xpand.

Draft development plan for Xpand 1.5/2.0 is not yet available.