Quote:
Originally Posted by cybmole
do plug-ins ever evolve into core program features, or are they doomed to be plug-ins forever ?
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That is really up to Kovid I think. Any he adds to Calibre means he inherits the support of them as users will see any issue as a Calibre problem rather than a plugin one. Plus if he changes an API then he has to fix all the plugins himself before shipping Calibre. Undoubtedly his toes would curl at the way we as newbie/amateur Python/Calibre developers write our code in places and he would feel compelled to rewrite them to make it easier for him to maintain. So that means a lot of potential extra work for him.
I don't know about you, but I would much rather see the new PDF converter engine come to light, or the new metadata download infrastructure, than have Kovid spend a few days rewriting say my Search the Internet and Open With plugins. As much as I would love every Calibre user to have them available!
Not every plugin is "doomed" if the idea is less niche than some of our plugins are. Kovid has said for instance that if we write the Duplicate Finder plugin that he would consider adding that into Calibre. The Plugin Updater which is next on my list (after a few other new ones I am about to release) I also took from his response as something he would be willing to include.
At least with that updater in place it would make the update process a lot less painful than it is now. Of course new users will still have to find Preferences->Plugins and click the right buttons, which I can guarantee a very high percentage will never do. If it doesn't appear on their menus when they install Calibre, most users will likely never discover it. However you can't bombard users menus with every single feature we plugin developers come up with. Judging by the daily posts of people not working out how to put a plugin in their toolbar or menu even that customisation is something that is not an intuitive thing.