Plugin

Shopping on line can be easy, simple and save you lots of money. It can also take a lot of your time, frustrate you, and result in unwanted purchases. Now the same can be said for regular high street shopping, but with the vast opportunity presented by the Internet it will pay you to spend a few minutes reading this and understanding how to better optimize your Plugin shopping experience:

1. Compare - without doubt the biggest advantage that the Plugin offers shoppers today is the ability to compare thousands of Plugin at a time. This is a great thing, but not necessarily all the time! Too much can be daunting at times so take advantage of the great comparison sites and where possible let them do the hard work for you.

2. Research - if it has been said it will be on the internet. Ignorance is no longer a justifiable reason for buying the wrong thing. Take the time to research in detail everything that you could possible want to know about

3. Testimonials - don't know anybody that has bought a Plugin? Wrong! If the Plugin is good the internet will let you know. Use the Internet as a friend and get testimonials before you buy.

4. Questions - Got a question about Plugin then search the Forums, FAQ's, Blogs etc. Don't be afraid to ask .....

5. Reputation - Never heard of the company selling Plugin? Don't worry, no reason why you should know every company in the world, but you know someone that does! Use the internet to find out what people are saying about Plugin and build up a picture of their reputation for sales, returns, customer service, delivery etc.

6. Returns - still worried that even after all of the above your Plugin wont be what you want? Check out the returns policy. There is so much competition now that someone, somewhere is bound to offer the terms that you are comfortable with.

7. Feedback - happy with your Plugin then let people know, after all you are depending on others people input in your buying decision, so why not give a little back.

8. Security - check for the yellow padlock on the Plugin site before you buy, and the s after http:/ /i.e. https:// = a secure site

9. Contact - got a question about Plugin, or want to leave a comment then check out the sites contact page. Reputable companies have them and respond.

10. Payment - ready to pay for your Plugin, then use your credit card or PayPal! Be aware of companies that don't accept them, there may be genuine reasons but given the huge amount of choice you have when buying online there is no reason at all not to buy via credit card or PayPal.

A plugin (plug-in, addin, add-in, addon or add-on) is a computer program that interacts with a host application software (a web browser or an email client, for example) to provide a certain, usually very specific, function "on demand". Applications support plugins for many reasons. Some of the main reasons include: enabling third-party developers to create capabilities to extend an application, reducing the size of an application, and separating source code from an application because of incompatible software licenses.

Examples of applications and their plugins include:

Email clients use plugins to decrypt and encrypt email (Pretty Good Privacy)
Graphics software use plugins to support file formats and process images (Adobe Photoshop)
Media players use plugins to support file formats and apply filters (foobar2000, GStreamer, Quintessential Media Player, Virtual Studio Technology, Winamp, XMMS)
Packet sniffers use plugins to decode packet formats (OmniPeek)
Remote Sensing Applications use plugins to process data from different sensor types (Opticks (Software))
Integrated development environment use plugins to support programming languages (Eclipse (computing), jEdit, MonoDevelop)
Web Browsers use plugins to play video and presentation formats (Adobe Flash, QuickTime)

Mechanism The host application provides services which the plugins can use, including a way for plugins to register themselves with the host application and a protocol by which data is exchanged with plugins. Plugins are dependent on these services provided by the host application and do not usually work by themselves. Conversely, the host application is independent of the plugins, making it possible for plugins to be added and updated dynamically without changes to the host application.

Open application programming interfaces (APIs) provide a standard interface, allowing third parties to create plugins that interact with the host application. A stable API allows third-party plugins to function as the original version changes and to extend the lifecycle of obsolete applications. The Adobe Photoshop and After Effects plugin APIs have become a standard and been adopted to some extent by competing applications. Other examples of such APIs include Audio Units and Virtual Studio Technology.

For example, a computer network switch may ship with an unoccupied but non-standard port to accommodate various optional physical layer connectors, while games and productivity applications often use plug-in architectures which allow original and third-party publishers to add functionality.

Manufacturers can use plug-ins to create vendor lock-in by limiting upgrade options to only those available from or endorsed by the original manufacturer. IBM's Micro Channel Architecture, technically superior to Industry Standard Architecture as a way to add components to IBM PCs, largely failed to gain wide support due to the difficulty in getting certification for third-party devices. The Microsoft Flight Simulator series is famous for its downloadable aircraft add-ons.

Plugins and Extensions Plugins are slightly different from Extension (computing), which modify or add to existing functionality. The main difference is that plugins generally rely on the host application's user interface and have a well-defined boundary to their possible set of actions. Extensions generally have fewer restrictions on their actions, and may provide their own user interfaces. They sometimes are used to decrease the size of the host application and offer optional functions. Mozilla Firefox and related software use Mozilla Add-ons as an inclusive term for a category of augmentation modules that are subdivided into plugins, themes, search engines and a well-developed extension (Mozilla) system which reduces the creeping featurism that plagued the Mozilla Application Suite.

History Plugins can be traced back as far as the mid 1970s, when the EDT text editor text editor running on the Unisys VS/9 operating system using the Univac 90/60 series mainframe computer, provided the ability to run a program from the editor and to allow such program to access the editor buffer, allowing an edit session in memory to be accessed by an external program. The plugin program could make calls to the editor to have it perform text editing services upon the buffer that the editor shared with the plugin. This feature was used by the University of Waterloo Fortran compiler to allow interactive compilation of Fortran programs being edited by EDT.

Perhaps the first software applications on PCs to include a plugin function were HyperCard and QuarkXPress on the Apple Macintosh, both released in 1987. In 1988, Silicon Beach Software included plugin functionality in Digital Darkroom and SuperPaint, and the term plug-in was coined by Ed Bomke. Currently, plugins are typically implemented as Shared library that must be installed in a place prescribed by the host application. HyperCard supported a similar facility, but it was more common for the plugin code to be included in the HyperCard documents (called stacks) themselves. This way, the HyperCard stack became a self-contained application in its own right, which could be distributed as a single entity that could be run by the user without the need for additional installation steps.

Plugin frameworks The following plugin frameworks are organized by programming language and can be used by software developers to add plugin capability their application.

C++

FxEngine Framework - a dataflow processing Framework
Qt PlugIns - part of TrollTech's Qt Framework

Delphi

TMS Plugin Framework

Java

Java Plug-in Framework (JPF), a plugin mechanism adapted from Eclipse (software)'s plugin mechanism from its pre-OSGi era.
(RCP), platform for applications adapted from Eclipse (software) , applications are written as plugins and may themself have further plugins

Python

Setuptools
The Twisted Plugin System
Sprinkles
Python plugin system

.NET

AL Platform
Mono Addins - an addin framework for .NET and Mono
Code Project .NET Based Plugin Framework

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