I'm starting work on an all-out development environment in Eclipse. Anything you can do in mplab, Eclipse will do, but better.
I've already written an error parser and toolchain handler, and I've started on the binary parser, a loader, and syntax highlighting extras. I've done enhanced wrapper scripts for mcc18 (no more "c:\mcc18\...").
My question is: How many people (adults and students) would be willing to help maintain it? The highlighting code especially will need to be kept real close to the CDT code, until they figure out how to extend it.
The FDT (FIRST Development Toolkit) will take the form of a feature patch of the CDT. Most of the functionality is implemented as plugins. The exception is the actual highlighter, which is a fragment against org.eclipse.cdt.core.
So I'm gaging interest to see if it would be worth my while or if it will fizzle out and die. Frankly, I'd love to be able to get this to the point where we can stick it in the kit and send it to the 1500 teams that will be around by then.