On Wed, 18 Oct 2006 18:31:32 -0500
Charles Duffy [off-list ref] wrote:
Granted, I'm speaking with my IT hat on here rather than my developer
hat -- but plugins are a pretty clear usability win.
Sure they can be. But their value I think is overstated, especially
in an open source project where anyone can grab a copy of the source
and update it with a trial feature. This updated copy can be wrapped
in a nice GUI installer just as easily as any plugin.
Now, I suppose plugins let end users mix and match trial features
slightly easier, but hopefully your base package isn't so devoid of
features that this is honestly necessary.
As Petr pointed out, all this comes to Bzr essentially for free
since it's a part of python. So be it, but I've yet to hear an
example where plugins were anything more than a minor convenience
rather than a fundamental win over the way Git is developing.
For an example, just look how few lines of git were needed to
implement the essential features of the bzr bundle feature.
With no plugins or monkey business needed ;o)
Sean