Adobe photoshop plug in

[Raymond Hettinger]

[Raymond]
> >If you need a real plugin, then life is more complicated.  To write photoshop
> >plugins in any language, I think you need to have Adobe's plugin SDK which
> >runs about $200.  It was not designed for beginning programmers.

[Bengt Richter]
> I wonder why they charge for that (assuming you're right). ISTM if someone
downloaded
> a copy and did nothing, it would be no loss. If OTOH they put in the hours to
produce
> a desirable plugin, there would be at least a slight gain in PS marketability
from the
> existence of the plugin. IWT selling PS is 'way more important to Adobe's
revenues
> than selling the SDK. So is the SDK revenue worth the loss of the activity
that would
> happen if it were free? I guess they must think so.

Not at all.  The real reason has little to do with making a buck
from developers.  It is more insidious than that -- it's more along
the lines of controlling their intellectual property; using price
as a quality control mechanism; and a mircosoft style desire
to know who you are, what you're up to, and having a say in
whether you can do it.  Even if you come up with the money,
they can still deny your request for an SDK:

     http://partners.adobe.com/asn/photoshop/index.jsp


Raymond Hettinger