I just got a comment on the blog recently updating me on an initiative which supports the build automation of Eclipse Plugins. Markus sent the link to www.pluginbuilder.org, where the eponymous software has just had a 0.2.0 release. Go try it out and see what you think.
Recently I've been having a most excellent time updating and building the SOA Tools project, constructing an update site and getting the infrastructure ready for the Europa (wiki link) release in the summer. It's all PDE, all of the time, and looking forward to a build matrix where we will have Eclipse 3.2.1 builds, 3.3 builds and a mix of J2SE 1.5 and J2SE 1.4 between the subprojects is interesting, to say the least.
However, things are hotting up in the Eclipse build world, and with projects like Kepler, Buckminster and ALF on the go, we are looking at a very interesting future.