New FARR Plugin Display Mode: UserWindowMode

[mouser]

What's this?



A plugin can now tell FARR to embed its window inside the FARR result window in a special userview mode.

Basically this lets you embed an entire program inside the FARR result window when a plugin wants to do so, enabling a plugin to display any form of data it can generate.  This is a live window that is resized along with farr. Any language can be used -- basically FARR just takes over as the parent for a normal Window.  Very easy to use.

I hope this will open up a new range of possible plugins

[mouser]

No one has commented on this feature yet?!?! 

I thought people were going to be fainting in the aisles -- it has great potential to open up some advanced plugins, especially now that there are ways for plugins to talk with each other a bit, so that a plugin could be installed whose only purpose is to handle requests from other aliases or plugins to display info.

[kartal]

I am fainting at the moment
We need some real examples probably thou.

Btw since we have this new embedding possibility, do you think that letting Farr run more than one instance is a good idea? For example one can have a very bare farr for only searching executables, no plugins just for search. And another one is for that is totally loaded with all these fancy plugins. And we can assign different shortcuts to this 2 versions. My suggestion is based on the fact that loaded version would slower to respond than barebone version. If there wont be any performance issues than running 2 instances does not make sense.

[herojoker]

@Mouser: First, let them calm down
In my opinion this is really a nice invention and it may render some usages/abuses of htmlview obsolete.

[cranioscopical]

Mouser, rather than sitting on the fence I'll make a feint if it keeps you happy.

[Codebyte]

This feature will add a multitude of new plugins to his project. The plugins are rather simple to make as well, ull just have to use his SDK. Keep up the great work mouser!

(This kept up till 5am last night.. lol)

[mouser]

I had another idea for this that i think would make it even more useful.
A lot of people are concerned about plugins using up memory and resources.

One thing i could do with a bit of work is make farr able to load a special kind of plugin that is a dll or even an exe program that basically is launched ONLY WHEN IT IS INVOKED, and then is closed as soon as the farr display is switched away.

So in other words this would be like an on-demand loaded plugins, loaded only when invoked, and then unloaded right after.

[Codebyte]

even better, this could be an option included in the "Advanced Configuration" for the plugin, so that you could manage what plugin's you would like to be running and which you want to run and close...

EDIT: Might be certain times when you have a plugin that is collecting network traffic or something and you want it to stay loaded in the background to measure activities and not just load on command and then close... just an idea or something, idk

[phitsc]

With all the new cool plugin features and ideas, don't forget to update the plugin SDK samples / API documentation . It's a bit hard to pick it all together from the different forum threads.

(refering to this thread: http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=10105.msg115984#msg115984)

[echo]

Sounds very innovative.

I thing it is a good place to put quick GUI's (FARR config is one of them, as was mentioned) and enable plug-ins to be more user friendly.

Maybe the next step is a GUI generator ?
(like in AutoHotKey)

[skajfes]

this looks very cool, but I am a little worried that this is the way to bloatware... Anyway, the idea of a plugin beeing loaded on demand seems to be a solution to that.

[s.newave]

WOW!! This does sound very promising indeed. I think we might need you to kick it off with an example though 

I had another idea for this that i think would make it even more useful.
A lot of people are concerned about plugins using up memory and resources.

One thing i could do with a bit of work is make farr able to load a special kind of plugin that is a dll or even an exe program that basically is launched ONLY WHEN IT IS INVOKED, and then is closed as soon as the farr display is switched away.

So in other words this would be like an on-demand loaded plugins, loaded only when invoked, and then unloaded right after.

I would be ok with this as long as it DOESNT slow down the speed and execution of the plugin in exchange for less memory usage. The reason i have fallen for FARR is that it continues to push the boundaries of what this type of application can become especially with some of your more recent additions. Imho if the cost of those additions is another 10-20mb then so be it. If you want an absolutely lean 250kb program that launches apps and a little more then FARR can be setup for that and there are also more then enough vanilla apps that can do that. Just check FARR's help file. Also if you dont need/use a specific plugin dont enable/install it . By no means am i advocating that FARR turn into bloatware and i think currently it is FARR from it however i dont think mem use specifically should be a primary concern in future development. I would rather development time go towards alias histories or ui improvement

[nitrix-ud]

By no means am i advocating that FARR turn into bloatware and i think currently it is FARR from it however i dont think mem use specifically should be a primary concern in future development. I would rather development time go towards alias histories or ui improvement smiley

+1

[ecaradec]

WOOW