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
*/ 
	public int compareTo(Object o) {
		if (o instanceof FilterDescriptor)
			return Collator.getInstance().compare(getName(), ((FilterDescriptor)o).getName());
		else
			return Integer.MIN_VALUE;
	}
	
	
	/**
	 * Creates the filter descriptors.
	 */
	private static FilterDescriptor[] createFilterDescriptors(IConfigurationElement[] elements) {
		List result= new ArrayList(5);
		Set descIds= new HashSet(5);
		for (int i= 0; i < elements.length; i++) {
			IConfigurationElement element= elements[i];
			if (FILTER_TAG.equals(element.getName())) {
				FilterDescriptor desc= new FilterDescriptor(element);
				if (!descIds.contains(desc.getId())) {
					result.add(desc);
					descIds.add(desc.getId());
				}
			}
		}
		Collections.sort(result);
		return (FilterDescriptor[])result.toArray(new FilterDescriptor[result.size()]);
	}
}