Modeling: From Zero to Seventy

Remember when no one had heard of EMF? When it was just Ed Merks, Frank Budinsky, and Dave Steinberg? Me neither.

These days modeling is everywhere, and with good reason. There are now a total of 70 people contributing to and committing for the various Modeling projects, the most recent additions being from MDT (Papyrus, BPMN2), EMF (CDO), and TMF (Xtext).

So, is it any surprise that there are 29 Modeling Track talks this year at EclipseCon, from the introductory Mega Modeling Mania BoF to the double-black-diamond GMF and QVT: roads (finally) crossed?

And that's not even including a couple of e4 talks about The Modeled UI in Eclipse e4 and The e4 Programming Model Across Web and Desktop or one about Designing an Android Domain Specific Modeling Language using EMF, GEF and GMF!

I guess some people are just unbearably stupid, eh?

Oops, I'll read it again!

Apparently at some point in the last month or so I set a filter to mark all inbound mail from Eclipse Bugzilla as already read. If I've been completely ignoring your comments in Bugzilla, I do apologize. Please ping me via those bugs - I've fixed the filter, so I'll now see your comment as unread and will respond.

I also discovered yesterday that since January about 80 emails to my Red Hat address had been incorrectly marked as Junk. I am now tracking that box too, just in case more gets incorrectly categorized.

On the plus side, this gives me an opportunity to use a Children of Bodom cover tune, in keeping with Britney Month. :)

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah



I think I did it again
I made you believe
I just didn't care
Oh baby
It might seem like a slight
But it doesn't mean that I'm serious
'Cause to misfile my email
That is just atypically me
Oh baby, baby

Oops! ...I did it again
I filtered your mail,
Ignored and prescreened
Oh baby, baby
Oops! ...Hundreds of notes a day
Gotta prioritize
With filters and labels

You see my problem is this
I'm reading away
'Bout UK lottos, that do not exist
I cry, four one nine, yeah
"Don't you see I'm a prince, from Nigeria!"
But to miss so much email
That is just atypically me
Baby, oh

Oops! ...I did it again
I filtered your mail,
Got lost in the trash
Oh baby, baby
Oops! ...Bayes thought that you were spam
Not sent here as pure ham
No, not so innocent

Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah
Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Oops! ...I filed it away from my view
Lost in a gig of email
Oops! ...I've fixed the filter that was screwed
Mistake was innocent

Britney Spears - Oops! ...I Did It Again

Break The Build

Britney Month continues! Dave Steinberg once again joins me as, with tongue planted firmly in cheek, we salute the people (ourselves included!) who've helped keep the M5a tradition alive.

Break The Build

It’s been a year
I know I shouldn’t be all that surprised
But it's here now


I know it’s been a while but we're here again
And I’ve been thinking 'bout how we play this game
We've got the servers spinning like a hurricane
I can't believe we're going through this again
Never test soon enough, so M5a is up!

Bridge:
(Ooh) looks like M5a now (Ahh)
You'd think we'd'a learned this by now (Ahh)
(I'ma hit respin on ya), let's get it blazin' (Uh-huh)
We can tweak the maps, if you wanna (Ahh)
Up the version nums, if we gotta (Ahh)
Just wanna M5 but it's too late
That's what I’m saying


Chorus:
Looks like we broke the build
Got some bugs unfulfilled
Won’t you respin for me
Baby, I can fix the bits (right, right, right, right)
Looks like we broke the build
Nobody is thrilled
Won’t you respin for me
Baby, I can fix the bits (right, right, right, right)

So you beta test yet?



We've all been hypnotized
We've all been here before
Gotta do things better next year for E4
Can you rise to the occasion (Ahh)
Early tests, no waiting (Ahh)
'Cause it’s getting late and there's been enough
4 years of M5a

Bridge

Chorus

D'you like this part?
No

Feels like tradition?
Yeah
Pooh

Chorus x 2

Britney Spears - Break The Ice

Workin' 9 to 9

I was going to save this tune 'till next month, but I was asked to explain a little why I should be voted Top Ambassador, so here it is early. I'll save the baby shaking and hand kissing to a later post. :)

Workin' 9 to 9

This year has been a little crazy for the Foundation
You may recall we had some trouble last year
The Equinox team unleashed p2 for our update sites
Some say it undermined our M5a cheer
And we know it's almost EclipseCon from the marks we make on our blogs
And that's our favorite time of year

Soon it's EclipseCon in Santa Clara, man
We've been working in a mine for our robot overlords
Did I say overlords? I meant the Members
Soon it's EclipseCon in Santa Clara, man

On every newsgroup there’s at least a couple committers
Who help the n00bs with their glowing red eyes
They give out answers and they have psychic debugging skills
So few RTFM it can make you cry
And the lights in Ed Merks' fish tank provide a nice diffusive glow
It's like a Hacker wonderland

Soon it's EclipseCon, coming soon this March
We've been working 9 to 9 for our robot overlords
Did I say overlords? I meant the EMO
Soon it's EclipseCon in Santa Clara, man

That's all the Planet news that I'm allowed to talk about
We really hope you'll come and visit us soon
I mean we're literally begging you to visit us
And make it quick before an [O.O.M. Error]
Save time for the Winners' party
I hope that Mike'll leave us his card
You know we love "free as in beer!"

Ooh, it's EclipseCon, coming soon this March
We've been working 9 to 9 for our robot overlords
Did I say overlords? I meant the PC
Soon it's EclipseCon in Santa Clara, man

Jonathan Coulton - Chiron Beta Prime

Download Stats & Missing Data

According to Google Analytics' new "snot graph" tool, the top three downloads in Modeling these days are, in order: EMF, UML2, UML2 Tools.

OK, no big surprise there. But what's really surprising is that people are still downloading zips. Isn't it easier to get your bits via Update? Isn't that why we provide you, the community, with over 20 Modeling update sites (three per project), so you can pick and choose what features to install, rather than downloading & unpacking zips? (Not to mention the countless other sites provided by DSDP, WTP, BIRT, DLTK, DTP, Mylyn, PDT, Equinox, Eclipse, GEF...)

Hell, with the advent of Eclipse 3.4, you can now even update the platform itself, so the Eclipse experience need only be one zip + a ton of multi-threaded updates. Say what you will about p2 (and I've said my share) but isn't it faster and easier than having to download zips?

I can understand being stuck on a platform version from a while ago, but with Eclipse 3.5 only 4 months away (yikes!), and e4 due next year, should anyone still be using Eclipse 3.0 or 3.1 and EMF 2.0 or 2.1? You're missing out on over three years of new development!

What's even more bizarre to me is that when maintenance releases are available, people still download the point-zero releases. Are we wasting our time doing maintenance? Should we be focusing on the next release instead? (In related news, Ganymede SR2 is just around the corner. Is everyone ready for what will be the final chapter for the Eclipse 3.4 stack?)

Of course the one glaring hole in all this data are the numbers around how many update jars are downloaded. If you'd like to see this resolved, have a look at bugs 239668 and 187968 and vote accordingly. It's really depressing to think that since September 15 we've only had 150,000 downloads (100,000 unique) when in 2006 we broke 1,000,000 downloads for 2006 on December 1 of that year, averaging just under 100,000 downloads a month.

Either the popularity of EMF - and of Modeling - has waned by two thirds, or we need a better way to capture stats.

It's M5, Bitch

EMF 2.5.0M5 is out today, which of course being such a prestigious milestone requires a dance number.

Today's musical selection comes to us from Dave Steinberg, author of the EMF Book. Have you ordered a copy (or two!) for your loved ones yet? Valetines' Day is just around the corner, people!

Gimme More (EMF)

(It's EMF bitch)
(We see your data)
(And we just want you to model it)

Every time we do a release
Just wanna go that extra mile for you
Fix every little defect
And add in some more features too (for you)

Can't go to town like there's no one around
Gotta keep it stable (Gotta keep it stable)
Gotta keep it stable (Keep it stable)
Test all combinations, of code generation
You keep downloading (You keep downloading)
Downloading

Community is saying

Gimme gimme more
Gimme more
Gimme gimme more
x4

A centre of attention (Can you feel them?)
Even when we're one of thirty-odd
It's the pride of the the Eclipse Foundation
Release coordination (uh-uh)
It's leaving the station (oh)

Cracking the whip, so that we will all ship
Galileo (Galileo)
Galileo, leo (oh ah ha)
Must-dos abounding, Bugzillas compounding
Gotta meet those milestones (Meet those milestones)
Those milestones

The planning council's saying

Gimme gimme more
Gimme more
Gimme gimme more
x4

Britney Spears - Gimme More