The FOP bridge plugin provides eclipse users the ability to convert FO documents into any one of the formats supported by Apache FOP directly from the workbench. Furthermore, conversion can be integrated into the Eclipse build-cycle. These capabilities are very useful for rapid prototyping.
The topic of technical publishing is relatively new to the world of Eclipse. One can make the argument that technical publishing is just another collaborative development process involving several people with different backgrounds and skills. This article will show that the Eclipse platform is a viable platform for technical publishing by discussing how to write documents such as an article or a book within Eclipse. In fact, this article was written using Eclipse.