[Qgis-developer] Plugin Development C++ Windows - Any response?

[Barend Gehrels]

Hi,

I'm quite new to this list so sorry if I say something that has been 
discussed already or if I miss a point.

On 25-2-2011 10:03, Martin Dobias wrote:
>
> While custom paths for c++ plugins seems to be a nice feature, I would
> like to point out the problems it will bring at some point: imagine
> that you compile a plugin for qgis 1.6 and keep it in this custom
> directory. Some time later you upgrade qgis to 1.7. The qgis libraries
> are not binary compatible between the releases,

Is the plugin-API documented somewhere? Cannot find it. I find this:

http://www.qgis.org/wiki/Writing_C%2B%2B_Plugins

having a note that it is quite old.


I can imagine the API is not binary compatible for some upgrades 
(usually it is extended so then still compatible, depending on the model 
used). Is there not a mechanism to check if a plugin corresponds to the 
version of the host (qgis)? I think this is feasable...


> so there is a good
> chance that the plugin will cause some random instabilities - it might
> crash qgis on some actions or even cause qgis to fail to start.

Agreed

> I would strongly recommend the users willing to write 3rd party
> plugins for QGIS to do that in Python - it's faster to implement, not
> required to compile and much easier to distribute.

I don't understand this:
- if the API/ABI changes, then you might have (sometimes) the same 
problem with Python (don't know sip).
- faster to implement but C++, in general, runs faster. If I've write 
labelling or routing plugin -> I would prefer C++
- some people knew C++ better, some Python, some both, if there are two 
options, would one be deprecated?
- why easier to distribute?

Regards, Barend