Plugins Concepts

Plugins (add-ins) are very popular. A plugin is a stand-alone module that adds its services to the application only when those services are needed. The biggest advantage is that it stands alone. Anyone can create a plugin if the plugin interface is public. For example, someone may create a plugin for viewing AVI files, and you can then view AVI files directly from Sally by simply adding this new plugin to your Sally installation. Another big advantage of the stand-alone approach is that adding functions does not affect the file size of the main executable. Sally therefore starts just as fast even when many new functions are available through plugins. Plugins are loaded into memory only when they are needed, and they can be unloaded again after use.