In continuation of its commitment to interoperability and fostering the Eclipse community in India, Microsoft has partnered with India's first and independent Eclipse-only summit - Eclipse India Summit 2009 (http://www.eclipsesummit.com/) - to take place in Bangalore, India, July 17-18 2009 at the Chancery Pavilion. As a Platinum sponsor, Microsoft will showcase technologies for Java developers to create applications that run on the Microsoft Silverlight platform.

Microsoft announced funding last October for a project by Soyatec, a French IT solutions provider and Eclipse Foundation member, to develop an open-source plug-in called Eclipse4SL which enables advanced Silverlight development capabilities in the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). The Soyatec Eclipse4SL plug-in works with the Eclipse IDE and Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) to enable both Silverlight development and better interoperability between Silverlight and existing Java investments in Web sites and Web services. Eclipse4SL features wizards to help developers build a Silverlight project, a Silverlight Web project, UI components and import Visual Studio projects into Eclipse. The plug-in also provides resource and program management, a code and Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) editor, as well as code patterns and interoperability guidance.

Microsoft has been consistently showcasing its gentler side to Open Source software and Java development communities. At the Mix09 conference in Las Vegas in March this year, Microsoft had revealed several moves intended to bolster its Windows Azure cloud computing platform, adding support for PHP application development and native code as well as full trust capabilities. The Redmond software major has also in the past, reached out and collaborated with JBoss. More specific to the Eclipse community, Microsoft is also assisting the Eclipse SWT team to enable Java developers to create applications that look and feel like Windows Vista in addition to their plan on supporting Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application development with Eclipse SWT.

One of the largest user bases for Eclipse in the world, the Indian ecosystem of software/tool developers and technology companies are benefiting from quick time-to-market and standardised user experiences by building their tools using Eclipse technology. Produced by Saltmarch Media, Eclipse India Summit 2009 will feature four core tracks that hold relevance, immediacy and impact for the Eclipse ecosystem in India - Product Development Essentials, Modeling Techniques, eDevelopment, Cool & New. "The mandate at Eclipse India Summit 2009 (EIS 2009) is to nurture the Eclipse ecosystem in India, empower it with information, and eventually create proactive committers and contributors who can plough back their efforts to global Eclipse development," said Indu Britto, Group Publisher, Saltmarch.

For more information on Eclipse India Summit 2009 look up http://www.eclipsesummit.com.