If you, like myself, are mainly developing OSGI-based applications, then you will have probably felt the same feeling I have, which is that the progress made elsewhere in user interfaces is lagging behind in Eclipse. Sure, the E4 platform is well underway, and the team from RAP has done a magnificent job in exposing the traditional Eclipse Rich Client to the server side, but even then the developments in especially JavaScript-based libraries such as Bootstrap or Vue.js are currently developing so fast, that it is almost impossible to keep track.
After reviewing a number of my own projects, I came to the conclusion that my approach to front-end development in Eclipse OSGI had to change. Up until recently, I would create a RAP RCP 3.x application, which would provide the main User Interface to my application. This would give me access to the various SWT widgets that I am accustomed to working with, and I could add JavaScript-based libraries, such as OpenLayers or Google Maps in a browser object. This approach works fine, but it does come with the price of limitations in styling and sizing for various platforms. Of course, Eclipse RAP provides all the necessary code to implement this functionality, but at the current state of technology, I would just want a bootstrap-ish library to take care of the boilerplate code, instead of me having to code this myself. https://goo.gl/7wXWN9