Plugin Status

From K-3D

Plugin authors have the ability to "mark" their plugins as being in one of three possible states:

• Experimental - the plugin interface has not been finalized and may change in the future. The plugin may-or-may-not be removed at any time.
• Stable - the plugin interface is stable and suitable for production use.
• Deprecated - the plugin is deprecated and will likely be removed in the next stable release of K-3D.

Note that none of these states refers to the quality of a plugin - in general, we expect all K-3D plugins to correctly perform their intended function without error or loss of user data. When we speak of a plugin interface, we are speaking in a general way about the set of input and output properties and behaviors that define what the plugin does. If any aspect of a plugin's interface were to change, by e.g. removing an existing property or altering the plugin's behavior in a way that alters the output of the plugin for a given set of inputs, saved user documents that use that plugin will be altered the next time the document is loaded. Needless to say, artists hate that!

Thus, it is important for the plugin developer to mark a plugin "Experimental" unless they are absolutely sure that the plugin interface will not change. Users should feel free to use an Experimental plugin, but with the understanding that future upgrades may alter the behavior of the plugin, or the plugin may be replaced or removed altogether. Similarly, "Deprecated" plugins will continue to function correctly until removed in future upgrades.