[Python-Dev] PEP 376 proposed changes for basic plugins support

[Holger Krekel]

On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 6:57 PM, Ian Bicking <ianb at colorstudy.com> wrote:
> Just to add a general opinion in here:
>
> Having worked with Setuptools' entry points, and a little with some Zope
> pluginish systems (Products.*, which I don't think anyone liked much, and
> some ways ZCML is used is pluginish), I'm not very excited about these.  The
> plugin system that causes the least confusion and yet seems to accomplish
> everything it needs is just listing objects in configuration -- nothing gets
> activated implicitly with installation, and names are Python package/object
> names without indirection.

This makes it a two-step process to use a plugin: install it and then
configure it correctly to have it used.

I'd much prefer a one-step process and rather provide a way to not-use
a plugin even if installed.  The difference is e.g. with py.test that i can
point users to e.g.

  pip install pytest-figleaf
  py.test --figleaf

instead of also having to explain a configuration file, its location
and exact content or some magic attribute variables on some
classes.

TBH, i'd like to have pip handle plugins, based on metadata
(especially some data signaling something is a plugin of otherthing).
This way i only once have to teach about "pip" and people leverage
 their knowledge for installing/managing plugins.

best,
holger

> The only thing I'd want to add is the ability to
> also point to files, as a common use for plugins is adding ad hoc
> functionality to an application, and the overhead of package creation isn't
> always called for.  hg for example seems both simple and general enough, and
> it doesn't use anything fancy.
>
> Purely for the purpose of discovery and documentation it might be helpful to
> have APIs, then some tool could show available plugins (especially if PyPI
> had a query interface for this), or at least installed plugins, with the
> necessary code to invoke them.
>
> *Maybe* it would make sense to generalize the discovery of plugin types, so
> that you can simply refer to an object and the application can determine
> what kind of plugin it is.  But having described this, it actually doesn't
> seem like a useful thing to generalize.
>
> --
> Ian Bicking  |  http://blog.ianbicking.org
>
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