"active" plugins

[Richard Gaskin]

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
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com