xPerT Pushes for developers

[P3rv3rt B3ar]

Pushing catshift is not only thing related to latest pushing spree and theres still more to come. xPerT has been written in Powerusers and Skinners in mind, now it will start to offer some services also for developers.

Nothing grand, but now on developers can access data whether or not skin editor, database editor or setup is open or not, trough xlobby variable as long as xPerT plugin is installed. I know its not biggest thing to write your self, but hey its only start, i hope and im sure, there will be more open features for developers to peruse not only within xPerT but on other plugins also.

I hope we plugin writers start to open up our plugins a bit, so they can access each others code. Sure theres arguments against it like D's statement of "plugin hell" (dependancy on other plugins), which certainly is true, but on other side Steven is not working on free core anymore, i believe us coders need to wake up and be little more united if we want old core to thrive and develop.

Heres the usage:

xPerT stores status of these windows into following xl-variables:

variable>xPerT>dbedit
variable>xPerT>skinedit
variable>xPerT>xlsetup

so u can access them in code the usual way, this codesample is example for skinedit:

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string isSkinedit = helper.ConvertVariables("variable>xPerT>skinedit");

The value of string isSkinedit will be "On" if skinedit is turned on. Otherwise itll be empty string...

So whats the use for this? for time to time u have need to represent screen variable differently whether user has skinedit on or not... u can for example provide additional info when skinedit is on...

And back to the politics:

I know coders are individual beasts, and i also know that standards develop in de-facto way when some coder invents some new concept and other imitate that proven concept. But i also believe we r gonna need some little organization, some agreed upon things, to make certain development possible and also just to keep our plugins interoperable with each other.

Here is something id like to suggest for first agreed upon standard to keep our plugins away for name collitions and over writing each others data:

When we push data from our plugins to xl-variables, id like to suggest that we use notation like:

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variable>name_of_plugin>whatever_variable_name

That way we ensure that as long as our plugins have unique names they wont interfere with each other.


Ok, damn it bear, im just a skinner and ive been reading this crap this far, what use is this for me??!!!

eeehh er.. well u can make cool lights which show whether setup is on or not...

here u go...

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plugin>xPerT>!instant!loadpic>normal>[plugin>xPerT>if>[variable>xPerT>xlsetup]>skin:\buttons\Greendot.gif]

happy now?

[P3rv3rt B3ar]

I forgot to say it is highly unlikely these pushers work properly with paylobby or paylobby preview versions, allthough, i havent tested. Theyre planned for and working together with latest freelobby.