Bug 37345 javaElementFilters extension point isn't robust against errors in the plugin.xml
1) create a javaElementFilters extension, but leave the markup in the plugin.xml incomplete 2) start-up the workbench -> the package explorer doesn't come up The reason is that the javaElementFilters extension point implementation fires an assertion when the xml isn't complete. This is not correct since this isn't a programming error. In addition, an error in the plugin.xml shouldn't never block the workbench from properly coming up.
org.eclipse.jdt.ui/ui/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/ui/filters/FilterDescriptor.java
IConfigurationElement[] elements= registry.getConfigurationElementsFor(JavaUI.ID_PLUGIN, EXTENSION_POINT_NAME);
			fgFilterDescriptors= createFilterDescriptors(elements);
		}	
		return fgFilterDescriptors;
	} 
	/**
	 * Returns all Java element filters which
	 * are contributed to the given view.
	 */
	public static FilterDescriptor[] getFilterDescriptors(String viewId) {
		FilterDescriptor[] filterDescs= FilterDescriptor.getFilterDescriptors();
		List result= new ArrayList(filterDescs.length);
		for (int i= 0; i < filterDescs.length; i++) {
			String vid= filterDescs[i].getViewId();
			if (vid == null || vid.equals(viewId))
				result.add(filterDescs[i]);
		}
		return (FilterDescriptor[])result.toArray(new FilterDescriptor[result.size()]);
	}
	
	/**
	 * Creates a new filter descriptor for the given configuration element.
	 */
	private FilterDescriptor(IConfigurationElement element) {
		fElement= element;
		
		Assert.isTrue(isPatternFilter() ^ isCustomFilter());
		Assert.isNotNull(getId());
		Assert.isNotNull(getName());
	}