MC IDE - developer tool additions - sugggestion

[Robert Brenstein]

>Robert Brenstein wrote:
>>Yet another consideration is an option to tell plugin manager to 
>>disable a given plugin (akin to extension manager in Mac OS), so it 
>>is skipped starting with the next launch. May be you've already 
>>planned this feature and just did not mention. This can also be 
>>accomplished by modifying the same property, me thinks.
>
>You hit on a very important idea there, Robert, one that has not 
>come up before but is critical.
>How about this:
>
>Starting MC with the Shift key down will start without loading 
>plugins or libraries.

Sounds good.

>The Plugins menu will still be operational, but holding the Shift 
>key down when selecting an item will open it as toplevel and with 
>lockMessages set to true.

This part I am not so sure about. Since you mentioned that Plugin 
Manager allows to set plugins to auto-start, I presume it has some 
GUI that lists all the plugins. My idea would be to use that 
interface to activate/deactivate plugins aside from setting/removing 
auto-start. Opening them as toplevel with or without lockMessages 
could be also handled there (option to lockMessages could be just a 
checkbox).

Fewer things to remember and more intuitive to use IMHO. The 
shift-key trick you suggest could be implemented as a shortcut if you 
think it is still worth it.

When eventually stacks gain systematic versioning (I believe this 
will/has to come sooner or later), plugin version could also be 
displayed in the plugin list. Displaying file moddate could be 
considered for now.

Robert Brenstein