Eclipse Modeling Package Neon M6 is ready for testing

The teams have been working hard and pushed many changes. I've been [tweeting those as they went](https://twitter.com/bruncedric) but I figured that compiling a list into a blogpost could be useful. Here are some noteworthy, this is not an exhaustive list and please if you think I missed something, reach to me on [the mattermost instance](https://goo.gl/0f88gC) before M7. ### Modeling Amalgam Thales contributed in Amalgam the building blocks to create views similar to those used in Capella.   The features are now part of the Neon update site and can be consumed by other projects, starting by [EcoreTools](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=486117). You'll find some documentation on the wiki [here](https://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingAmalgam/ContextualExplorer) and [there](https://wiki.eclipse.org/ModelingAmalgam/ContextualExplorer), Capella's source code is also a good starting point. ### Platform/SWT Many and important improvements in Linux/GTK3 support, notably [Issue in layout of editors ("leaking" rulers)](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=467499). SWT now auto-detects the scaling factor which might be needed on ``HiDPI`` screens but the linux support is not perfect and it looks like GTK is [giving a hard time to the commiters here again](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=489771), in the meantime if you get this result when starting Eclipse :  then add ```-Dswt.enable.autoScale=false``` after ``-vmargs``in your eclipse.ini to disable this automatic scaling. ### Packaging The modeling package is now using the brand new **Solstice Theme** for the welcome page. It is now explicitely focused on the package domain and it looks slicker, see: [](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CeOi0iCXEAA6gGX.jpg:large) We also moved away from the **"we fix every single version of the tools in the package"** to using root features. The outcome of this is that it is now possible for an end-user to upgrade parts of the package without having to wait for a full Eclipse release. Another effect of this change is that **you can not update a pre-M6 EPP package to M6**. You must download a fresh version. The potential downside is that the user could end-up with an installation which is mixing different streams or which is quite unexpected for us, packagers. See [bug 332989](https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=332989) for more details. ### Sirius 4.0.0M6 * The Sirius runtime is no longer depending on the ***JDT***. * Closing a modeling project is now [**way** faster](https://eclip.se/442133). We went from ``20s`` to ``0.6s`` closing a project with **1 million of model elements**. The strategy to dispose a ```Resource``` instance is no longer relying on ```resource.unload()``` which was eating a lot of time and was completely useless **99%** of the time. Problem was **the last 1%** which relied on some events being sent to clear static caches (*I'm looking at you UML*). The Sirius team designed a strategy which should meet the requirements of **100%** of the resource implementations we know of, and as it is better to be safe than sorry a specific strategy can be contributed for the **other ``%``** we don't know of yet ;) * The [Acceleo Query Language](https://www.eclipse.dev/acceleo/documentation/aql.html) has had a good number of updates notably API-wise, leading to a **5.0.0** version for the corresponding packages. Make sure you ranges are now including this version. * SVG rendering has been improved and is now [correct whatever the zoom level](https://eclip.se/442268). - Before . - Now  * if you install Sirius in the package to define your own modeling tool (only the runtime is pre-installed in the package), you'll see that it is now possible to constrain on which side of a shape a bordered node (port) might be.  This improvement [had many supporters](https://eclip.se/440296), just look at the number of ``+1`` comments. Now it's your job to give it a try and tell us if that fits your use case! ### Ecore Diagram Editor * All the goodness from the Sirius 4.0.0M6 runtime (including SVG improvements) * EcoreTools can now display EReferences which are listed within the EClass.[](https://cedric.brun.io/images/blog/2016/wrXWGNz.png) ### EMF Compare An integration with Sirius to bring graphical comparison is now available through the [EMF Compare update site](https://download.eclipse.org/modeling/emf/compare/updates/milestones/3.2/S201603200413).

This feature bring *experimental* support for graphical comparison of any Sirius based modeler, in particular EcoreTools which is in the package. Note that you **have to install the Egit support feature** to use to be able to compare versions through the git history.

### Bugfixes and other improvements That's just the tip of the iceberg, [many other changes in technologies included in the package are published with M6](https://goo.gl/XLEvQz), thanks to everyone involved ! Now would be a good time for testing. [Download the package](https://www.eclipse.dev/downloads/index-developer.php), give it a try, report back either using [the modeling channel](https://goo.gl/0f88gC) or through [bugzilla](https://goo.gl/UF17uT). Stay tuned! 

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