[Geany-devel] [RFC] Plugin Template

Lex Trotman elextr at xxxxx
Tue May 3 23:50:55 UTC 2011


>> What do you guys think?
>> Is it worthwhile?
>> Have I missed any important files?

I think in principle anything that reduces the barriers to creating
plugins is worthwhile.  We should never forget that what may be second
nature to experienced open source developers may be a confusing
"blocker" to an inexperienced developer or even an experienced
developer who has only used Windows before.

>>
>> I was going to follow this up with a tutorial on the Wiki explaining how
>> to check-out the template, describe which files needed to be modified
>> and how to do so, etc.  Also it would have some more general notes from
>> HACKING, getting commit access, the cppcheck stuff and so on.  This
>> would be a good companion to the plugin howto I think.

Yes, a tutorial would be a good idea.  I'm happy to help review it.

>
> I don't think the template is really useful, apart maybe for
> Makefile.ams and wscript_* (though I don't know exactly what's in the
> later), but I think that for the other files a tutorial is just enough
> and probably even better:
>
>  * AUTHORS just contains he author's name, nothing predictable

Just an example layout and a note not to forget regular contributors

>  * COPYING OK, should probably be a GPL, but we already have both v2 and
> v3 (maybe we should fix this BTW...)

Whats to fix, Geany is released under GPL v2 or later so plugins must
have a compatible license.  But that includes GPLv3, modified BSD and
lots more see

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses

No point in changing things/adding restrictions we don't need to and
we can't just go change licenses without the owners permission.

And if Geany itself upgraded to V3 then all plugins that use V2 would
be technically illegal since v3 is not backward compatible and lots of
people still don't agree with v3.

>  * ChangeLog, maybe required for the build system, not sure, but anyway
> its content is not predictable either

No, but an example of good practice won't hurt.

>  * NEWS again, not predictable
>  * README same

Examples of things to put in it could be worthwhile, how to build,
basic use/pointer to the copious documentation, restrictions,
configuration, bugs etc.

>  * THANKS, again
>  * TODO same, and not even needed

Just say this is where you put known problems, known upgrades, etc

>  * ../build/foo.m4 though it's quite similar from a plugin to another
> should not be put in the real build dir, so where to place it? I think a
> tutorial explaining what to put in it is better

Arrrgggg, I'm allergic to m4

>  * src/foo.c though a small part of it will be the same for every
> plugin, most of it's content will not be the same, and we even already
> have a doc/demo for this

Well probably use the demo here, two birds with one stone etc.

>  * configure.ac is a bit pointless since we talk about geany-plugins
> integration ^^
>
> So I think the tutorial is a great idea, but I'm not sure the demo entry is.

Definitely agree that expanded tutorial is worthwhile, butthink there
is value in the template too, and can incorporate the example.

Cheers
Lex
>
> Cheers,
> Colomban
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