JJZolx;168765 Wrote: > Here's a question for erland: > > You've done some great work in your plugins, adding a lot of features > that people have wanted within SlimServer for quite some time. > > Why not get onboard, talk with whoever is now in charge of Slim > software development, and work within the main SlimServer and > database? It just strikes me that eventually you're going to develop > an entirely new browsing and library management system, but it's all > going to be within your plugins... Why not incorporate that > functionality directly within the server and take advantage of SD's QA, > an increased beta tester base, and the cooperation of the other > developers? Right now you end up jumping through a lot of hoops, and > figuring out workarounds to be able to do what you want - wouldn't the > alternative approach both be easier and benefit more end users? > > Plugins are great, but it seems to me that they should be relegated to > smaller bits and pieces that won't likely ever be a part of SlimServer, > not major undertakings redefining how people use the server. > > Does my question make sense? Your point makes a lot if sense, however there is some reasons for it.
1. One advantage with plugins in my optinion is that you get the functionality right now, you don't have to wait for the next slimserver release. This is probably not important if you look at the big picture, but the main reason I have developed my plugins is that I wanted the functionality myself. I wanted it now and not a year in the future. I'm always running the an official release of slimserver in my living room since I want a stable system there. If the functionality was only implemented directly in slimserver this would mean that I would have to spend my free time implementing something that I couldn't use until a year later. 2. Development of functionality for standard slimserver will take a lot longer time for a number of reasons. More people will have to get involved in making decisions, today I can make all the decisions myself. A lot more thinking has to be done regarding costs of support after the release. As an example TrackStat contains a lot of different options for changing the behaviour, making slimserver contain the same number of options would result in a support nightmare for slimdevices/logitech. Also the design and code structure gets more important since a lot of users will be using it and it has to be easy to maintain. Developing the functionality as plugins makes it possible to use the concept "code first, think later", this is not how I like to do stuff at my day work but for free time work (like slimserver plugins) when I just want something up and running fast its a useful concept. 3. I have no problem at all if someone wants to merge some of the functionality from my plugins into the standard slimserver, I would also be willing to do parts of the work myself. I've already made some suggestions and offers regarding this but didn't get much response at the time, probably because it was just after the 6.5 release and in the middle of the logitech merging stuff. I don't think it is a question of including all the plugin code, we are probably only talking about smaller parts of the functionality in the plugins. The rest would probably be best suited as plugins also in the future. Parts of the code would also have to be rewritten to fulfill the points in point 2 above. 4. I'm doing this on my free time and I am doing it mainly because I like the funtionality myself. I have got some smaller donations from plugin users which I appreciate a lot, but besides this I get no income what so ever from any of the work I have done with my plugins. Getting involved in the slimserver core development would mean more comittment, it would mean that other people are dependent on that I am available and does some work, it would mean that I have to commit myself to get stuff ready at a specific release date. Today I can choose myself when I like to work with my plugins, so far I have spend a lot of time with them but I am not sure that is going to be the situation always. 5. There is some functionality that I have actually made just because it seemed to be a need for it even though I didn't need it myself. One of these are the "Libraries" menu in Custom Browse and the multi libraries support would also be a case of this. The reason I started this thread is because I don't feel like doing "multi library" as a plugin if it is something that the slimserver developers feels ready to include in the standard slimserver in 7.0. I could of course just make a patch for it as often suggested on these forums, but frankly I don't like spending my free time making a patch for 7.0 if I don't know there is a big chance it will be included in 7.0. The reason is that if its not included in 7.0 the work would probably have to be remade for 8.0, the reason is that there are usually a lot of differences in the slimserver code between releases so a patch for one release will not work for the next. The problem with "multi libary" support in standard slimserver is also that it would basically affect almost everything if its done in the correct way. The result is also that it would mean a lot of work which probably also is one of the reasons why it hasn't been implemented yet. Making it as a plugin would make it possible to get the functionality available in some parts right away, it would be quite easy to do and it can always be merged into slimserver into a future release. If I make "Multi library" support in a plugin it would probably mean that it will be supported in my own plugins (mainly Custom Browse) but nowhere else. -- erland Erland Isaksson 'My homepage' (http://erland.homeip.net) 'My download page' (http://erland.homeip.net/download) (Developer of 'TrackStat' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-trackstat) , 'SQLPlayList' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-sqlplaylist) , 'DynamicPlayList' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-dynamicplaylist), 'Custom Browse' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-custombrowse),'Custom Scan' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-customscan),'Custom Skip' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-customskip) and 'RandomPlayList' (http://erland.homeip.net/download/do/viewapplication?name=slimserver-randomplaylist) plugins) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ erland's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=31431 _______________________________________________ beta mailing list beta@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/beta
