For questions about the Eclipse Rich Client Platform which is a generic Java platform for running applications. It provides the basic blocks for building rich client application using the OSGi framework.
The characteristics of Eclipse RCP include:
Components - Eclipse includes a robust component model. These loosely coupled components are usually called plug-ins. The component model is based on the OSGi standard.
Middleware and infrastructure - On top of the component model is a set of frameworks and facilities that make the job of writing client applications much easier.
Native user experience - The Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) provides a graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit for java that allows efficient and portable access to the native UI facilities of the operating system (OS).
Portability - Eclipse provides support for heterogeneous OSs and client environments, ranging from traditional PCs, to thinner devices such as tablets and kiosks, down to mobile devices and embedded smart phones.
Intelligent install and update - Eclipse's component framework enables plug-ins to be deployed and updated using any number of mechanisms: HTTP, Java Web Start, repositories, or simple file copying.
Component libraries - The Eclipse community has produced plug-ins for building pluggable UIs, managing Help content, install and update support, text editing, consoles, product introductions, graphical editing frameworks, modeling frameworks, reporting, data manipulation, and many more.
The Eclipse IDE itself is an Eclipse RCP.
