I've been getting a lot of questions about "What are 'active' plugins?"
I'd like to make v2.6 final soon, but I must admit I still have misgivings about adding the "active" plugin mode.
Folks understand what it is to open a stack, and what it is to library a stack. But they don't seem to grok "active", and I must admit I don't either.
From the Read Me:
- plugins marked as 'active' are not opened but receive
'pluginStack' message at startup; this is a new class
of plugins that allow having dual-operation plugins
(otherwise, there is an ambiguity which mode to execute
when).Thus far I know of only one plugin that is reported to need this, a stack from Robert Brenstein who proposed and built the "active" mode, which is used to set the script font at startup.
He had reported that he preferred to invent the new "active" mode so that he could allow the plugin to run itself when the IDE starts but also be opened from the Plugin without triggering that behavior.
After thinking about this some more and in light of the many confused questions I get about this new "active" mode, I'm wondering if such a plugin could simply be set to be a library and operate like this:
on libraryStack DoInitStuff -- such as setting scriptFont properties end libraryStack
on openStack DoUIStuff -- for when it's opened from the Plugins menu end openStack
My general feeling is that when the engine can do the job we should let
it. In this case a dual-mode is needed, and two modes which get the job
done are already supported in the engine and the Plugin Manager without also inventing
a third.
While it may be conceivable that there might be a case in which the two engine-supported modes are not sufficient, after having v2.6b5 out for evaluation for six months I've seen none, but I have seen a fair amount of confusion.
So the question is:
Do we need an "active" mode for plugins in addition to the engine-supported "open" and "library" options?
If the majority opinion is to keep it we should release this beta as final soon -- please get any bug reports in if you haven't already (the item about the menu references is already on this list -- thank you Klaus). If not, we can remove it and get a last round of testing with a final release soon after.
-- Richard Gaskin Fourth World Media Corporation ___________________________________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.FourthWorld.com
_______________________________________________ metacard mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/metacard
