Current Situation
Archi is currently built on Eclipse 4.32 (released June 2024) and uses an outdated snapshot of GEF (Graphical Editing Framework) from 2021.
GEF is an Eclipse project that provides a set of frameworks and tools for building rich graphical editors and diagrams inside Eclipse-based applications (or standalone SWT applications). It's used by Archi, together with the associated Draw2d framework, to create Archi's Views (diagrams).
Why This Needs to Change
This setup is no longer sustainable. Since 2021, the GEF Classic components (Draw2d, GEF (MVC), and Zest) have received numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, and enhancements. Continuing to rely on such an old snapshot risks accumulating technical debt and missing out on important stability and rendering improvements.
Work already done
Over the last few months, I've been actively testing and adapting Archi to the latest builds of Eclipse and GEF/Draw2d/Zest. This has been a significant and non-trivial effort. I've been greatly assisted during this process by the committers and maintainers of the Eclipse and GEF projects, whose support has been invaluable. Of note has been the incredible work on improving and reviving GEF by its maintainers, so many thanks to them. See here for some resolved issues.
Development is maintained in this branch.
Proposed Action
I plan to upgrade the next version of Archi (5.10) to:
- The next Eclipse platform of 2026-06
- The next GEF Classic version of 3.28.0
This upgrade will make Archi more future-proof, bring in many fixes and improvements from the underlying frameworks, and resolve certain existing issues in the diagram editor.
Potential Side Effects
Recent changes in Eclipse SWT (particularly on Windows) related to monitor scaling / DPI support may introduce new issues or visual changes in diagram rendering.
The main areas to test are:
- Diagram editing and rendering
- Zoom, scaling, and High-DPI displays
- Monitor display scalings of 125%, 150% and 175% on Windows
Next Steps
- Continue to test and fix issues in the development branch
- As we get closer to the June 2026 release of Eclipse/GEF create public early access builds of Archi 5.10, probably in mid-May 2026
- Test early access builds and gather community feedback
Workload
As the maintainer of the Archi project (including Archi, jArchi, coArchi 1, and coArchi 2), I am currently working on this upgrade as my main priority. Since this is a free and open-source project, I am the only developer actively working on it and already dedicate many hours per day to development, maintenance, and community support. Because of this, the upgrade to the latest Eclipse and GEF frameworks will be my sole focus for the coming period.
Current Situation
Archi is currently built on Eclipse 4.32 (released June 2024) and uses an outdated snapshot of GEF (Graphical Editing Framework) from 2021.
GEF is an Eclipse project that provides a set of frameworks and tools for building rich graphical editors and diagrams inside Eclipse-based applications (or standalone SWT applications). It's used by Archi, together with the associated Draw2d framework, to create Archi's Views (diagrams).
Why This Needs to Change
This setup is no longer sustainable. Since 2021, the GEF Classic components (Draw2d, GEF (MVC), and Zest) have received numerous bug fixes, performance improvements, and enhancements. Continuing to rely on such an old snapshot risks accumulating technical debt and missing out on important stability and rendering improvements.
Work already done
Over the last few months, I've been actively testing and adapting Archi to the latest builds of Eclipse and GEF/Draw2d/Zest. This has been a significant and non-trivial effort. I've been greatly assisted during this process by the committers and maintainers of the Eclipse and GEF projects, whose support has been invaluable. Of note has been the incredible work on improving and reviving GEF by its maintainers, so many thanks to them. See here for some resolved issues.
Development is maintained in this branch.
Proposed Action
I plan to upgrade the next version of Archi (5.10) to:
This upgrade will make Archi more future-proof, bring in many fixes and improvements from the underlying frameworks, and resolve certain existing issues in the diagram editor.
Potential Side Effects
Recent changes in Eclipse SWT (particularly on Windows) related to monitor scaling / DPI support may introduce new issues or visual changes in diagram rendering.
The main areas to test are:
Next Steps
Workload
As the maintainer of the Archi project (including Archi, jArchi, coArchi 1, and coArchi 2), I am currently working on this upgrade as my main priority. Since this is a free and open-source project, I am the only developer actively working on it and already dedicate many hours per day to development, maintenance, and community support. Because of this, the upgrade to the latest Eclipse and GEF frameworks will be my sole focus for the coming period.