[WARN] Inserting Any Plugin in the AltPluginToolbar

[Richard Gaskin]

Stephen Barncard wrote:
> Why not make your plugs compatible with Chipp's Alt Bar, since you don't 
> have a 'bar' of your own? 
...
> There really is no 'architecture'. they're still just plugins.

Yet they require modification to work there.

And that would be the case with devolution too, if you wanted them 
automatically updated.  And with any other toolkit out there which could 
provide support for other people's tools.

Interoperability between plugins can be very valuable, but it would be 
combersome for me to require that others add properties and objects just 
to work with mine, and then to add similar but differently-named 
properties to work with Chipp's, and similar but differently-named 
properties to work with Eric's, and so on with every new toolkit that 
comes along.

Could there be a single set of conventions which could be used by all 
plugin authors to allow interoperability among all toolkits?

That's the central question of the Rev Interoperability Group:
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/revInterop/>

As announced in Malta last year and explained in greater detail at 
RevCon West last month, RIP is an open working group for arriving at 
common solutions for things most of us are doing but had been doing 
differently from one another.  Everything the group recommends is 
inherently optional and extensible, so one can adopt them or not to the 
degree that they want their tools and toolkits to work well with those 
from other authors and still provide any additional functionality unique 
to their toolkit with no penalty.

The first deliverable from the RIP working group is the Edinburgh Core 
Metadata Initiative (ECMI).  Modelled largely on the popular Dublin Core 
Metadata Initiative (but with a geographic reference to our friends at 
RunRev <g>), ECMI provides a set of conventions fort custom properties 
which support a wide range of common tool and project management tasks, 
including version control, automated updating, and more.

Chipp has made contributions to the group, and Eric, Ken, Paul, myself, 
and others are in the process of updating our tools to use these 
conventions.

The initial draft of ECMI is available in the Files section of that 
group.  Tools for authors to help set up and manage those properties are 
in development by Eric, Ken, and myself, and should be available before 
the draft is finalized.

The group is open to participation by anyone who has an interest in 
making Rev tools for others.  Feel free to join in the discussion there.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
  _______________________________________________________
  Rev tips, tutorials and more: http://www.revJournal.com