Loose coupling in Eclipse is achieved partially through the mechanism of extensions and extension points. A general EXAMPLE for this would be: electrical outlets. The outlet, or socket, is the extension POINT; the plug, or light bulb that connects to it, is the extension. As with electric outlets, extension points come in a wide variety of shapes and SIZES, and only the extensions that are designed for that particular extension point will fit.

When a plugin wants to allow other plugins to extend or customize portions of its functionality, it will DECLARE an extension point. The extension point declares typically a combination of XML markup and Java interfaces. The extensions must conform to this. plugins that want to connect to that extension point must implement that contract in their extension. Extension points are define in the plugin.xml

Loose coupling in Eclipse is achieved partially through the mechanism of extensions and extension points. A general example for this would be: electrical outlets. The outlet, or socket, is the extension point; the plug, or light bulb that connects to it, is the extension. As with electric outlets, extension points come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and only the extensions that are designed for that particular extension point will fit.

When a plugin wants to allow other plugins to extend or customize portions of its functionality, it will declare an extension point. The extension point declares typically a combination of XML markup and Java interfaces. The extensions must conform to this. plugins that want to connect to that extension point must implement that contract in their extension. Extension points are define in the plugin.xml