Starting working with Eclipse RCP

• Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) with Eclipse Ganymede (3.4) - Tutorial
• JFace examples
• Make your Eclipse applications richer with view linking
• RCP FAQ
• Java Developer's Guide To Eclipse

Eclipse RCP isn't as easy as people put it is. It's essentially writing an Eclipse plug-in and you have to learn a whole new JFace/Eclipse way of doing things.

There are many good online references included on the Eclipse Resources page, and on the Eclipse Wiki. There is also quite a bit of good material on Eclipse Live http://live.eclipse.org/ in the form of tutorials and other presentations, some of which come from the eclipsecon conferences.

I recommend starting with the most recent entries for each of these resources since RCP is much easier now than it was several years ago.

Some things to try: 1) Use the Platform Command Framework rather than the older Actions framework that was the mainstay of the RCP example programs. 2) Use the databinding farmework to simplify UI wiring. 3) If you're doing a forms-based app, check out the UI Forms API, which provides a good way to control the style of the forms (and adds niceties like collapsible sections). 4) Look at EMF for building your data model - databinding now supports EMF directly.