There has been a lot of confusion about the RCP and the number of plug-ins. Does org.eclipse.core.resources or org.eclipse.ui.ide a part of the RCP plug-ins.
As i have seen and built the RCP applications…there are only TWO plug-ins needed for a RCP application.
- org.eclipse.ui
- org.eclipse.core.runtime
But on the other hand as given by eclipse.org, following are the set of plug-ins that are officially part of teh eclipse RCP distribution…
Runtime:
- org.eclipse.core.runtime
- org.eclipse.osgi
- org.eclipse.osgi.services
SWT:
- org.eclipse.swt
- + platform-specific fragments, e.g. org.eclipse.swt.win32
JFace:
- org.eclipse.jface
Workbench:
- org.eclipse.ui
- org.eclipse.ui.workbench
Other prerequisites for the Workbench:
- org.eclipse.core.expressions
- org.eclipse.help
In the end, as an application developer or an analyst, its YOU who have to decide wether to include the other stuff or not. In my experience of tool development, initially we started it as RCP and ended in full blown Eclipse application (with resourcemanagement, undate site, search, help, etc…).
Also look into… http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/index.cgi/platform-ui-home/rcp/faq.html?rev=1.7