Jungle Plug-ins SDK. Anyone interested?
Monkey Forums/Monkey Programming/Jungle Plug-ins SDK. Anyone interested?
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| I'm considering creating a plug-in system for Jungle Ide, so people could be able to write their own plugins for Jungle Ide. The idea here is that Jungle Ide and Lite users can have a way to extend or addapt Jungle Ide functionality to fullfill their own needs. Adding a safe plug-in system to a multithread-base app like Jungle Ide is not a trivial task, so I was curious to know if there's any interest on it, before I start such a big addition to Jungle Ide. The idea is that you could write plugins for Jungle Ide (and lite) using the free version of Visual C# Express 2010, or Visual Basic Express 2010. I would provide a complete API description and some samples. Any interest on this? I did already create a Plug-In system for BLIde, but only a couple of third party plugins where developed using it, as it was not very straight-forward to use it. I think I could do a much better job on Jungle Ide, as its internal desing is much much better and plug-in friendly (Jungle Ide itself is designed as a sort of plug-in puzzle) |
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| Dont have the IDE but adding a feature like this can never be a bad thing, even if only a handful of people write a plugin for it, you have to consider the number of other people who then download and use that plugin. Not to mention it will allow you to develop your own and expand your own ide via plugins making it easier for your users to add or remove stuff they like and stuff they dont like. |
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| I probably would not make my own plugin but I do think this would be a brilliant idea. Perhaps you could also add in command shortcuts as a simpler approach? (eg keyboard/menu shortcut to access an external exe/batch) |
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| In lieu of creating an API and plug-in system, why not query users on what additional features/ functionality they want? This way the additions you make will be rolled into the product for all to use and perhaps make Jungle IDE even more of a compelling purchase. I just started using Jungle IDE last night and so far I am quite impressed. Perhaps you could work out something with BRL to make it the 'official' shipping IDE for Monkey. |
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| In lieu of creating an API and plug-in system, why not query users on what additional features/ functionality they want? I think this is a good idea for a "second" round. I think getting an standarized and easy to use plugin system should come first, and then after, improve it and addapt it to the users needs. We'll see how far it can go, depending on user's usage and demand of features. |
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| Perhaps you could work out something with BRL to make it the 'official' shipping IDE for Monkey. That would upset many of us that have paid for the full license. And as Jungle is a Windows only product it wouldn't be fair on the mac users. |
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| No offence m8 but that's little reason not to do it, you paid for something and you have it, you can hardly complain if later down the line they change the pricing model or as suggested seek partnership with brl to handle the ide. |
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| @ziggy Instead of using Visual C# Express 2010, or Visual Basic Express 2010 for writing plugin's why not consider a scripting language of some kind. Maybe Python? No offence m8 but that's little reason not to do it, you paid for something and you have it, you can hardly complain if later down the line they change the pricing model or as suggested seek partnership with brl to handle the ide. None taken. It wouldn't bother me as long as both parties honor (updates etc) their current customers who have already paid by not charging any additional fees. Come to think of it it wouldn't bother me if Mark decide to charge a small yearly subscription fee providing he add the much wait for Linux support, add additional platforms and improves data file handling across all platforms and lots of things I can't think of right now ;). But making Jungle the official IDE wouldn't work as I said Jungle is a Windows only application and Monkey is meant to work across Windows/Mac and sometime in the future Linux (maybe). And I sure ziggy said somewhere that Jungle couldn't be made cross platform ( the answer is in the forums somewhere ). I would gladly pay ziggy again triple the money he was asking for lifetime support if he could. At the moment if you want an IDE that's the same across all PC platforms you're stuck with using the Monkey IDE ( or a modified version ). The only other solution would be if somebody has the time and the will to modify something like the eclipse IDE. |
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| Any interest on this? The answer would entirely depend on what the plugin API gave access to. If it meant that we could query the AST and implement much needed features like finding all references to a method/variable or implementations of a class/method then sure. |
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| @muddy_shoes: The idea is to provide a first level of access to general IDE "items", not language specific ones, and after this, a Monkey detailed API access, that should include AST access, but current internal AST representation is not 100% fnished. |
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| Instead of using Visual C# Express 2010, or Visual Basic Express 2010 for writing plugin's why not consider a scripting language of some kind. Maybe Python I want it to be fast and to interact directly with the .net APIs instead of depending on tones of GLUE code. Also, basing it on C# opens the door to a Monkey target that could allow plugins to be written in Monkey. while this is not a priority or something I'll be ading any time soon, the fact that it could be possible, is very sexy |
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| Cool to have plugins, especially when automating stuff directly inside the IDE. Access to the AST is indeed valuable (e.g. TODO's...) |
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| I'm 100% okay with VB.NET plugin support. No one ever seems to even consider it! Allowing the ability to tightly integrate an IDE with a developer's personal toolchain sounds like the recipe for rapid application development success. |
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| I'm 100% okay with VB.NET plugin support. No one ever seems to even consider it! I do consider it and, as long as the plugin system will be .net based, VB.net (and also delphi .net) will be compatible with it. In fact, I do really love vb.net as long as you disable late binding and implicit conversions (so, at the end, it works as fast as the C# compiler) |
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