A plugin (plug-in, addin, add-in, addon or add-on) is a computer program that interacts with a main (or host) application (a web browser or an email program, for example) to provide a certain, usually very specific, function on demand. A computer program is a collection of instructions that describe a task, or set of tasks, to be carried out by a computer. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... An example of a web browser (Mozilla Firefox), displaying the English Wikipedia main page. ... An email client (or mail user agent [MUA]) is a computer program that is used to read and send email. ...

Typical examples are plugins that:

• read or edit specific types of files (for instance, decode multimedia files)
• encrypt or decrypt email (for instance, PGP)
• filter images in graphic programs in ways that the host application could not normally do
• play and watch Flash presentations in a web browser

This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... E-mail, or email, is short for electronic mail and is a method of composing, sending, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems. ... PGP Encryption (Pretty Good Privacy) is a computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication. ... It has been suggested that FutureSplash Animator be merged into this article or section. ...

Mechanism

The host application provides services which the plugins can use, including a way for plugins to register themselves with the host application and a protocol by which data is exchanged with plugins. Plugins are dependent on these services provided by the main application and do not usually work by themselves. Conversely, the main application is independent of the plugins, making it possible for plugins to be added and updated dynamically without changes to the main application.

Open application programming interfaces (APIs) provide a standard interface, allowing third parties to create plugins that interact with the main application. A stable API allows third-party plugins to function as the original version changes and to extend the lifecycle of obsolete applications. The Adobe Photoshop and After Effects plugin APIs have become a standard and been adopted to some extent by competing applications. Other examples of such APIs include Audio Units and VST. A application programming interface (API) is the interface that a computer system, library or application provides in order to allow requests for services to be made of it by other computer programs, and/or to allow data to be exchanged between them. ... Audio Units is a plug-in API developed by Apple Computer to add functionality to audio creation and recording software. ... Virtual Studio Technology and its acronym VST refer to an interface standard for connecting audio synthesizer and effect plugins to audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. ...

Plugins can be traced back as far as the mid 1970s, when the EDT text editor running on the Unisys VS/9 operating system using the Univac 90/60 series mainframe computer, provided the ability to run a program from the editor and to allow such program to access the editor buffer, allowing an edit session in memory to be accessed by an external program. The addin program could make calls to the editor to have it perform text editing services upon the buffer that the editor shared with the addin. This feature was used by the Waterloo Fortran compiler to allow interactive compilation of Fortran programs being edited by EDT. EDT was a text editor that was developed by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) for use on its PDP-11 series of computers, and later for its VAX/VMS series as well. ... Notepad is the standard text editor for Microsoft Windows A text editor is a piece of computer software for editing plain text. ... Unisys Corporation (NYSE: UIS), based in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, and incorporated in Delaware[2], is a global provider of information technology services and solutions. ... An operating system (OS) is a set of computer programs that manage the hardware and software resources of a computer. ... The Univac 90/60 series computer was a mainframe class computer manufactured by Sperry Corporation as a competitor to the IBM System 360 series of mainframe computers. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The University of Waterloo, also known as UW, UWaterloo, or simply, Waterloo is a medium-sized research-intensive public university in the city of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. ... This article is about the computing term. ... Fortran (previously FORTRAN[1]) is a general-purpose[2], procedural,[3] imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing. ...

Perhaps the first software applications on PCs to include a plugin function were HyperCard and QuarkXPress on the Macintosh, both released in 1987. In 1988, Silicon Beach Software included plugin functionality in Digital Darkroom and SuperPaint, and the term plug-in was coined by Ed Bomke. Currently, plugins are typically implemented as shared libraries that must be installed in a place prescribed by the main application. HyperCard supported a similar facility, but it was more common for the plugin code to be included in the HyperCard documents (called stacks) themselves. This way, the HyperCard stack became a self-contained application in its own right, which could be distributed as a single entity that could be run by the user without the need for additional installation steps. HyperCard was an application program from Apple Computer that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. ... QuarkXPress is a page layout application for Mac OS X and Windows, produced by Quark, Inc. ... The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984, upgraded to a 512K Fat Mac. The Macintosh or Mac, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured, and marketed by Apple Computer. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Silicon Beach Software was an influential early developer of products for the Macintosh computer. ... SuperPaint was a pioneering graphics program and framebuffer computer system developed by Richard Shoup at Xerox PARC. The system was first conceptualized in late 1972 and produced its first stable image in April 1973. ... In computer science, a library is a collection of subprograms used to develop software. ...

For example, a network switch may ship with an unoccupied but non-standard port to accommodate various optional physical layer connectors, while games and productivity applications often use plug-in architectures which allow original and third-party publishers to add functionality. This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ...

Manufacturers can use plug-ins to create vendor lock-in by limiting upgrade options to only those available from or endorsed by the original manufacturer. IBM's Micro Channel architecture, technically superior to Industry Standard Architecture as a way to add components to IBM PCs, largely failed to gain wide support due to the difficulty in getting certification for third-party devices. The Microsoft Flight Simulator series is famous for its downloadable aircraft add-ons. In economics, vendor lock-in, also known as proprietary lock-in, lock-in, or the Pottersville pattern, is a situation in which a customer is so dependent on a vendor for products and services that he or she cannot move to another vendor without substantial switching costs, real and/or... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Plugins and extensions

Plugins are slightly different from extensions, which modify or add to existing functionality. The main difference is that plugins generally rely on the main application's user interface and have a well-defined boundary to their possible set of actions. Extensions generally have fewer restrictions on their actions, and may provide their own user interfaces. They sometimes are used to decrease the size of the main application and offer optional functions. Mozilla Firefox and related softwares use Add-on as an inclusive term for a category of augmentation modules that are subdivided into plugins, themes, search engines and a well-developed extension system which reduces the feature creep that plagued the Mozilla Application Suite. This page talks about the programming concept; for other meanings, see extension. ... The user interface is the part of a system exposed to users. ... Mozilla Firefox is a graphical web browser developed by the Mozilla Corporation and a large community of external contributors. ... Mozilla Add-ons frontpage. ... Mozilla Firefox showing several extensions and a custom theme See also: List of Firefox extensions Extensions are installable enhancements to the Mozilla Firefox or Mozilla web browsers, and add features to the application or allow existing features to be modified. ... Microsoft Word with all features activated Creeping featurism, or creeping featuritis, is a phrase used to describe software which over-emphasizes new features to the detriment of other design goals, such as simplicity, compactness, stability, or bug reduction. ... The Mozilla Application Suite (originally known as Mozilla, marketed as the Mozilla Suite, and code named Seamonkey) is a free, cross-platform internet suite, whose components include a web browser, an e-mail and news client, an HTML editor, and an IRC client. ...

Examples

Many professional software packages offer plugin APIs to developers, in order to increase the utility of the base product. Examples of these include:

• Eclipse
• GStreamer multimedia pipe handler
• jEdit Program Editor
• Quintessential Media Player, Winamp, foobar2000 and XMMS
• Notepad++
• OmniPeek packet analysis platform
• VST Audio Plugin Format
• [1],Plugin Frameworks

Eclipse is an open source platform-independent software framework for delivering what the project calls rich-client applications, as opposed to thin client browser-based applications. ... GStreamer is a multimedia framework written in the C programming language with the type system based on GObject. ... jEdit is a text editor for programmers available under the GNU General Public License. ... Quintessential Player (also called QCD) is a freeware, multi-format Media player developed by Paul Quinn since 1997, when it was known as Quintessential CD (thus, the QCD moniker that remains in use today). ... Winamp is a proprietary media player written by Nullsoft, a subsidiary of Time Warner. ... foobar2000 is a freeware audio player for Windows developed by Peter Pawlowski, a former freelance contractor for Nullsoft. ... XMMSs default appearance The X Multimedia System (XMMS) is a free audio player very similar to Winamp, that runs on many Unix-like operating systems. ... Notepad++ is a free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the Microsoft Windows environment. ... OmniPeek is part of WildPackets Omni³ System. ... Virtual Studio Technology and its acronym VST refer to an interface standard for connecting audio synthesizer and effect plugins to audio editors and hard-disk recording systems. ...

Bands

There are two bands with the name Add-on in the title. The Add+ons [2], from the USA, and The Add-Ons [3], From the UK. [4],Plugin Frameworks

See also

• Shared library

Look up plugin in
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Look up addon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Illustration of an application which may use libvorbisfile. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that French Wiktionary be merged into this article or section. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... It has been suggested that French Wiktionary be merged into this article or section. ...

External links

• Plugin.com
• Pluginz.com