Fat vs Greasy (Was: [Zope-dev] Re: Future of ZClasses)

[Lennart Regebro]

On 10/9/06, Jean-Marc Orliaguet <jmo at ita.chalmers.se> wrote:
> That's basically what I wrote the other day (The Times... ) : as an
> application designer you want a *plugin architecture* with greasy fat
> components, not an architecture with hundreds of micro-components wired
> together like this:
> http://jacobswellchurch.org/tim/archives/wires-bottom.jpg that require
> that learn the internals.
>
> Also, "plugin logic" is not the same as "micro-component logic":
>
> - plugins are single units that only need a runtime platform to get
> working, while micro-components need to get assembled before they can be
> used, the border between the platform and the platform's components is
> very blurry.
>
> - plugins have a public API that preserves backward compatibility, and
> hence preserves user's investments, while micro-components neither have
> a public or private API, they implement interfaces (interface != API)
>
> - plugins can get loaded and unloaded at runtime, or updated, while
> micro-components are basically added once at server startup time and
> they never get changed at run-time.
>
> - a plugin architecture can manage dependencies between plugins.
>
> - plugins are useful to market an architecture, (cf. Photoshop gimp,
> Gimp plugins, VDR plugins (http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/plugins.htm),
> Firefox plugins, skins, Azureus plugins, Eclipse plugins ...). It is
> easy to explain what a plugin does in terms of functionality, while it
> is difficult to explain what a micro-component does.
>
> //- plugins encourage participation!!! (that's one of the reason of the
> success of Plone IMO: every one feel that they can create their own
> product, by looking at other existing products), while micro-components
> are difficult to grasp.
>
> - plugins can be used by end-users, while micro-components are designed
> by developers for developers.

That's not at all what I said. ;)
But you have valid points and I basically agree with your separations
of micro-components and plugins.

-- 
Lennart Regebro, Nuxeo     http://www.nuxeo.com/
CPS Content Management     http://www.nuxeo.org/