From: Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jul 13 2002 - 23:03:51 EDT
Wow I just wanted to say that this sounds really
impressive and will be a major improvement!
Andrew Dunbar.
--- "Kenneth J.Davis" <jeremyd@computer.org> wrote: >
As I have been doing something similar (an exported
> C api), this is an
> interesting approach. Presently I am doing it as a
> plugin itself, that
> exports a simplistic API. I'm still testing the
> feasibility
> of my ideas, but presently I have a test plugin
> AbiCapiTest, all the
> tools plugins that presently work on Windows
> (AbiPaint, AbiBabelfish,
> AbiURLDict, AbiWikipedia, with Festvox as-is also
> working though it
> does nothing), along with the graphics imp/exp that
> presently work
> on Windows (AbiBMP, AbiJPEG, AbiMagick) are
> supported. My next major
> step in my feasibility testing is to see if I can
> reasonably support
> the importers/exporters with relative coding ease on
> the importer/exporter
> side.
>
> Notes about my approach:
> - Presently I'm only doing this on Windows, though
> with some minor
> changes (adding appropriate
> dllload/dllunload/getProcAddress) for
> other platforms then it may also work on them.
> - It involves some duplication, because I am trying
> to avoid changing
> AbiWord's source (which I did have to add a few
> ABI_EXPORTS to correct
> linking issues, but this is fixing proper linkage of
> existing plugins)
> and using any class in AbiWord's source causes an
> entry in the plugins
> import table for AbiWord.exe [a big no-no for what
> I'm trying for]
> (Some of this could be avoided by enabling
> ABI_EXPORT to be defined to
> nothing.) As such, a few really useful things, like
> UT_String and
> various other tidbits were extracted; this means
> only what is exposed
> through my plugin (or taken out and slightly
> modified) is available to
> other plugins that use my approach, though the
> supported API is easily
> expandable without breaking existing binary
> compatibility.
> - Plugins are no longer dependant on a given AbiWord
> build. As a method
> of testing this, all the above plugins in binary
> form [compiled only
> once] can be used with both AbiWord HEAD branch and
> AbiWord STABLE
> branch.
> - To ease my life, the plugins all link with their
> existing but modified
> code and another file abiCapiGeneric.cpp that
> handles AbiWord's plugin
> interface and handles testing the AbiCapi plugin's
> exported version
> along with getting the address of all C API
> functions. The plugin
> DLLs contain no imports for AbiCapi.1.dll nor
> AbiWord.exe.
> - Mixing of plugins compiled with MS VC 5 or 6
> probably works (as that
> worked before), but I presently rely (by my lack of
> checking and ensuring)
> on using the same C/C++ runtime libary.
> - While they work for me, I don't claim them to be
> bug free, especially
> for non english languages, after all I'm still just
> seeing if my
> approach is usable [which I'm still undecided upon,
> hence my delay
> in mentioning it].
>
> :-)
> Jeremy Davis
> jeremyd@computer.org
>
>
> F J Franklin <F.J.Franklin@sheffield.ac.uk> wrote on
> 7/13/2002 10:57:24 AM:
> >
> >baby steps...
> >
> >o preliminary/experimental support for a Simple
> Plugin Interface (SPI): a
> > passive "C"-style interface with support for
> strict versioning and inter-
> > plugin dependencies; XAP_Spider is the module
> manager for SPI plugins.
> >
> ..
> >o experimental plugin for testing SPI (Simple
> Plugin Interface) currently
> > being developed
> >
> ..
> >Regards, Frank
> >
> >Francis James Franklin
> >F.J.Franklin@shef.ac.uk
> >
> >"No, she really likes me. She told me I look like
> Britney Spears, and why
> >would you say that to somebody you don't like?"
> >
> --- Elle Woods
>
>
=====
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