'Moe'

I like the idea of plugins. All these unofficial builds out there contain cool things which are simply not yet ready for CVS, and maybe never will. If we had a plugin API for adding IO-Port/IRQ/DMA handlers, Shell Commands and a few other hooks, those patches could be kept separate from DosBox permanently and their authors could do whatever they like with their source. A quick glance across the patches forum shows some viable candidates. More importantly, a plugin can be updated independently from dosbox. That discussion about Munt internal or not - Qbix doesn't like to do it? That's okay, someone else would be free to provide a plugin.

Here company features come into play again: I love that emulated-LPT1-patch on SF since I wouls like to try printing functions in some games, but I can see that it qualifies more as a corporate feature. A company wants LPT1 passthrough? Fine, let them do it through a plugin, we won't be bothered and they get what they want. That database server patch is a similar candidate. With plugins, the whole discussion can stop - support has always been like "when someone feels like saying something, he will", and commercialy motivated questions won't change that.

HunterZ
Moderator by day, Vampire Hunter by night

Moe: I hadn't thought about the plugin thing much until reading your post. Plugins sound like a great idea for allowing users to try out experimental or otherwise non-official enhancements to DOSBox without having to find a CVS build with the desired combination of features built in.

Nazo Newbie […]
Show full quote

Nazo
Newbie

Joined: 2005-07-28
Posts: 34
I have to agree. I think some kind of priority maybe even should be given. If you modularize it, it would actually even become possible to add/remove modules on a per game basis if you do like me and keep a seperate copy of DOSBox + configuration in each game folder to be run through it. Might make things run a little more smoothly when done correctly (except when everything has to be turned on obviously...)

Hey, we're talking about a virtual system here, how about modulize it into peices such as soundcards acting like real cards that can be plugged in and removed, that sort of thing. d-: I'm not entirely joking though, if each plugin basically acted like a card, it basically means a plugin can be written to act like any card out there worth acting like, be it video or audio. That might mean things such as glide become accessable simply by emulating a 3dfx card with a module that can draw from the host's card. Well, I may be way off base here, but, it's a nice thought, right?