Bug 317912 3.x RCP applications have to be updated before they can run in e4
Currently the Eclipse 4.0 SDK does not allow to run standard Eclipse 3.6 RCP applications. Build ID: I20100623-1410. Create a new plugin project. Select RCP and select the "RCP with a view template". If you run it you receive: org.eclipse.core.runtime.AssertionFailedException: null argument:applicationXMI argument missing at org.eclipse.core.runtime.Assert.isNotNull(Assert.java:85) at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.loadApplicationModel(E4Application.java:216) at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createE4Workbench(E4Application.java:136) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$3.run(Workbench.java:528) at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:521) at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149) at testing.Application.start(Application.java:20) at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:369) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:179) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:619) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:574) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1407) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1383)
bundles/org.eclipse.e4.ui.workbench.swt/src/org/eclipse/e4/ui/internal/workbench/swt/E4Application.java
* @param create
	 *            If the directory and file does not exist this parameter
	 *            controls whether it will be created.
	 * @return An url to the file or null if the version file does not exist or
	 *         could not be created.
	 */
	private static File getVersionFile(URL workspaceUrl, boolean create) {
		if (workspaceUrl == null) {
			return null;
		}
		try {
			
			File metaDir = new File(workspaceUrl.getPath(), METADATA_FOLDER);
			if (!metaDir.exists() && (!create || !metaDir.mkdir())) {
				return null;
			}
			
			File versionFile = new File(metaDir, VERSION_FILENAME);
			if (!versionFile.exists()
					&& (!create || !versionFile.createNewFile())) {
				return null;
			}
			return versionFile;
		} catch (IOException e) {
			
			return null;
		}
	}
}