Re: commit: abi & abiword-plugins: simple plugin interface

From: Andrew Dunbar (hippietrail@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 03:41:30 EDT

  • Next message: F J Franklin: "commit: abi: (Re: patch: detect nautilus-config)"

     --- F J Franklin <F.J.Franklin@sheffield.ac.uk>
    wrote: > > I really don't think we want to do this.
    I've
    > only
    > > really worked on some of the simpler
    > import/exports
    > > so I probably have an oversimplified idea of what
    > they
    > > need. But for importing we need to provide access
    > to
    > > the AppendStrux and related functions.
    > > Having all imports and exports translated the way
    > you
    > > suggest will add another weak link in the chain
    > where
    > > the developer will have to try to map everything
    > from
    > > his source format to his destination format and
    > then
    > > Abi will have to do a second mapping from this
    > > destination format to its internal format. All
    > these
    > > mappings are lossy to some degree and the loss
    > will
    > > be cumulative.
    > > We have to be able to import/export directly
    > to/from
    > > AbiWord's internal structure.
    >
    > Did you mean to write to just me?

    Oops. I still hit the reply button without thinking
    sometimes ):

    > Anyway, I agree that best results can only be got by
    > interacting directly
    > with AbiWord's internals. But the purpose behind SPI
    > is a passive
    > "C"-style interface whereby AbiWord calls functions
    > defined in the plugin
    > and *not* vice-versa. Kenneth's CAPI is more likely
    > to provide interaction
    > bewteen plugin and abiword.
    >
    > The interface below does lend itself easily to some
    > simple conversions
    > such as compression/decompression and
    > encryption/decryption. Also,
    > perhaps, things like bad Cocoa RTF <-> proper RTF -
    > but I don't know about
    > that.

    Yes it does sound like it has some good uses.
    I definitely think there is a good idea in here
    somewhere. I just wanted to warn people about
    potential lossiness in the general case.

    Andrew Dunbar.

    > >> extern "C" [...] int
    > >> convert_document (const unsigned char *
    > source_buffer,
    > >> unsigned long source_length,
    > >> const char *
    > source_content_type,
    > >> unsigned char ** buffer,
    > >> unsigned long * length,
    > >> char ** content_type);
    >
    > Anyway, I'm still only thinking about it.
    >
    > 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
    >
    >

    =====
    http://linguaphile.sourceforge.net http://www.abisource.com

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