Utility Plugins

[Jaggy]

I have been looking on the wiki at the plugin section to see what plugins I need to do skins for & even though there are still not a lot of plugins for NextPVR one thing that stood out was the number of (for want of a better description) "utility type plugins" amongst the normal plugins....... I wonder if it would be less confusing if there was another section for these type of plugins especially when the plugin section starts to get a lot more in it??

[mvallevand]

My Network Tuner Plugin is a normal "plugin", it just happens not to have a UI. The GBPVR wiki categorized plugins http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Plugin/Plugin by function, that probably is the way to go over time, but right now there isn't any duplication.

Martin

[Jaggy]

They are all normal "plugins" I realise that, but some are more utilities than plugins...... & it was only a thought I had while looking at the plugins on the wiki posted out loud (so to speak) to see what others thought....

[mvallevand]

I actually don't think it is a bad idea but there must be a better categorization than normal.. Unfortunately I don't know if there is a catch all for AutoAudjust, AutoRefresh, NetworkRecorder ReClockOrNot, and SubMenu functionality. SSPlus might belong it this group too, after all screen savers are typically "utilities".

Martin

[imilne]

Yeah, it's very dependant on whether you want to classify something as a utility or just a plugin without an interface. SubMenu - if done properly (which it's not at the moment) - would need per-skin support, so it doesn't really fit in with the others. Then there's VolumeOSD, which is very much a utility, but also has a UI. Personally, I don't think enough plugins exist - yet - to worry too much about it.

Iain

[steeb]

For my 2p I would have to go with Iain on this. At this stage I do not believe there is enough de-lineation to put the effort into being more specific with the categories on the wiki?

The choice is so limited, people will find what they need if it exists?

cheers

steeb

[whurlston]

Personally, for purposes of the wiki, I would call anything that NextPVR/NRecord loads directly a plugin. Anything that is called indirectly would be a utility.

For example, a program that is called in PostProcessing.bat would be a utility but any dll that implements NPVR interfaces (IScreenPlugin, IRecorderPlugin, etc) would be a plugin since it's resolved by NextPVR/NRecord.

Now each section can have subsections once the list gets too big and there could be a Plugin->Utility subsection in addition to the main Utility section.