On 10/9/06, Jean-Marc Orliaguet <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
That's basically what I wrote the other day (The Times... ) : as an
application designer you want a *plugin architecture* with greasy fat
components, not an architecture with hundreds of micro-components wired
together like this:
http://jacobswellchurch.org/tim/archives/wires-bottom.jpg that require
that learn the internals.
Also, "plugin logic" is not the same as "micro-component logic":
- plugins are single units that only need a runtime platform to get
working, while micro-components need to get assembled before they can be
used, the border between the platform and the platform's components is
very blurry.
- plugins have a public API that preserves backward compatibility, and
hence preserves user's investments, while micro-components neither have
a public or private API, they implement interfaces (interface != API)
- plugins can get loaded and unloaded at runtime, or updated, while
micro-components are basically added once at server startup time and
they never get changed at run-time.
- a plugin architecture can manage dependencies between plugins.
- plugins are useful to market an architecture, (cf. Photoshop gimp,
Gimp plugins, VDR plugins (http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/plugins.htm),
Firefox plugins, skins, Azureus plugins, Eclipse plugins ...). It is
easy to explain what a plugin does in terms of functionality, while it
is difficult to explain what a micro-component does.
//- plugins encourage participation!!! (that's one of the reason of the
success of Plone IMO: every one feel that they can create their own
product, by looking at other existing products), while micro-components
are difficult to grasp.
- plugins can be used by end-users, while micro-components are designed
by developers for developers.
That's not at all what I said. ;)
But you have valid points and I basically agree with your separations
of micro-components and plugins.
--
Lennart Regebro, Nuxeo http://www.nuxeo.com/
CPS Content Management http://www.nuxeo.org/
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