SWT has been a stable part of the Eclipse ecosystem for a while, so what could you expect from a major release such as Europa? Well, the usual array of bug fixes has been applied, but there's also some improved functionality and new widgets.

Printing on Linux, one of the most requested features, has been implemented for Eclipse 3.3 (provided that it's GTK 2.10+). This joins the other operating systems which have had print capabilities for some time; in addition, it's now possible to print with line numbers as well (helpful for those code reviews).

Mozilla support has also been extended to other platforms; it's not just Linux any more. This gives the ability for documentation to be served in a standards-compliant browser, or even give the benefit of installed plugins (such as NoScript) that you might happen to have. You'll need XULRunner to be installed to make this happen, so it won't just work out of the box with an existing FireFox install.

A bunch of work has gone to support WPF on Windows Vista, including accellerated rendering of double-buffered canvases and drag and drop with the desktop. Although 3.3 will be treated as early access for Windows Vista/WPF, early feedback suggests that it's good enough for day-to-day developer use; although I suspect not recommended for WPF-based RCP applications or other packaged platforms at this stage.

Finally, there's also some supported and new widgets. One of my favourites is that the 'search' field now has the appearance of the OS's search field (fortunately, you don't get a paperclip on Windows systems ...). There's also a new Date/Time widget, that can be used to display (or prompt for) dates in a calendar-like fashion. Some existing widgets have been ported to other operating systems; for example, the SWT's menu widget is now also available on OS X, as are the ability to have custom cursors on OS X and GTK.

These changes might seem subtle, but go to help give Eclipse a consistent style and quality that is unmatched in the IDE space.

Three days, and counting ...