Re: Function documentation dialog [was Re: Gnumeric 1.1.90 comments]

[Jody Goldberg <jody gnome org>]

On Fri, Sep 12, 2003 at 08:27:05PM -0700, Patrick wrote:
> Ooh. Ok, that is an impressive amount of work already accomplished.
> What format is the help text stored in? A custom XML? If so is it
> read natively or first transformed in XHTML?

Don't ask.  The format is miserable.  There was a post on a proposal
to move to something more modern a few days/weeks ago that I need to
address after 1.2 (don't worry manny I have not forgotten).  We need
to improve the infrastructure there, but it is a difficult area that
overlaps with translators, documenters, and code.  Then to make
things fun there are almost 500 of the damn things, so there is a
huge amount of inertia.
 
> Plugins seems like an implementation detail to me which
> does not need to be exposed (except to developers and administrators
> who set the plugin directory paths).

Users shouldn't be exposed to them for the most part.  By default
all plugins accept security issues (corba interface, sample real
time data feed) are enabled.  None actually get loaded unless
they're needed.

> Could plugins return their purpose so that they could be better
> organized? I'm especially thinking of:
>  - File format filters
>  - Functions
>  - Chart types
>  - Features (for lack of a better term; adding to menus/toolbars/dialogs)
It has crossed my mind several times, but its not trivial.  Plugins
can supply as many services as they want.  So it is entirely
feasible to see a 'Foo import/export' plugin that would also add
'Foo specific functions'

Early in 1.3 we'll be doing some cleanup on the plugin subsystem so
that it can move into libgoffice for more general use.  We can tune
things then.