[wp-hackers] Plugin Management issue...

[Eric A. Meyer]

At 8:13 -0700 6/29/04, Jason goldsmith wrote:

>Unfortunately the argument that the plugin load order is random is
>totally false.

    Technically, yes, but practically speaking the argument has some 
merit.  Unless I'm VERY careful about how I enable my plugins (or 
else I disable them all just to start them up again in a specific 
order) the order may as well be random.

>Whether that was intentional or a happy accident isn't relevant
>anymore. There are developers who use the current order, so changing
>that behavior for 1 or 2 developers may hurt the 1 or 2 other guys who
>use it.
>
>I totally agree that changing the plugin API willy nilly is not
>conducive to encouraging development. I think the better solution is
>to develop some way for plugins to specify that their loading should
>be delayed until some other plugin loads.

    I'd generally agree with that.  Another possibility is to have a 
file called something like 'plugin-load-order.xml' (or .txt or .php 
or whatever) that lets authors define the load order.  Given such a 
feature, if the file doesn't exist then plugins load as they do now, 
in enable-order.  I can't think of too many downsides, although being 
a novice at PHP, MySQL, and most of the rest of WP's foundation I 
could easily have missed something.

-- 
Eric A. Meyer  (eric at meyerweb.com)    http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/
Principal, Complex Spiral Consulting  http://www.complexspiral.com/
"CSS: The Definitive Guide," "CSS2.0 Programmer's Reference,"
"Eric Meyer on CSS," and more   http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/books/