[Kde-pim] Plugin Question re Kontact Headers

[Dr. Robert Marmorstein]

> 1) the API hadn't been stabilized or reviewed
> 2) we wanted to maintain control; we don't see Kontact as a general
> purpose shell for plugging anything at all.

I think one is irrelevant these days (unless/until we do the plasma 
containment bit) and I think we should strongly reconsider two.  

What is the point of having a plug-in architecture if we don't allow 
developers to write plug-ins for that interface?  Why not just hard code in 
the few applications that we support?  

I think the answer is that clearly we WANT third party development in kdepim.  
We want to encourage developers to introduce new applications and contribute 
patches to the code base.  This is one of the big advantages of open source 
software -- that we can customize existing code to create new applications and 
satisfy new use cases.  I think KDE (and Akonadi in particular) really 
highlights how well this works.  It is becoming VERY easy to throw together an 
Akonadi resource to collect PIM data from practically any event-generating 
source (in my case, due dates on my web site).  

I think the Kontact shell can be (and should be) a similar point of 
convergence.  By providing applications with a common interface, the Kontact 
shell enables rapid switching between PIM applications.  I use this all the 
time -- switching from basKet to korganizer and back saves me an awful lot of 
time when I'm trying to check things off my todo list.  I think it would be 
great to see more applications take advantage of those features.

>From what Volker said, it should be possible to provide a safe and consistent 
interface that isolates plug-ins from each other.  I'm willing to help with 
this some as soon as I have time (i.e. in between semesters).

--Robert
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