Deploying an RCP application on multiple platforms

I’ve been answering a bunch of questions from the webinar Jeff and I delivered a few days back.

One listener asked:

Do I need to develop three different applications if I want a Windoze, Linux and Mac version?

No. You can use exactly the same code base on all three platforms. You can “export” your application to all three platforms when you’re ready to deliver it to your users.

Here’s a screenshot of the last page of the Eclipse Product export wizard in Eclipse 3.2M3:

Before this will work, you’ll have to setup a target directory with the RCP delta pack. I actually started typing in the instructions for setting this up, but discovered quickly that it’s going to take a lot more time than I can reasonably spend on a blog posting. I’ve created Bug 120174 to recommend the construction of an appropriate tutorial for the Eclipse Articles site.