Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] Plugin binary compatib. over ethereal versions - possible? (v

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From: ronnie sahlberg <ronniesahlberg@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 22 Nov 2004 19:26:05 +1100
On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:13:26 +0100, Joerg Mayer <jmayer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> IMO, the plugin API has no real need to stabilize/ for binary compatibility:
> In my personal opinion all effeort spent on supporting binary only plugins
> is wasted effort - of course everyone is free to do with their time as they
> like :)

Agree.
When things break, it is not because someone deliberately changes the
definition of the packet_info structure  just so that the external
plugins will break.
Changes are done to these structures and thus the interface when they
need to change to offer better functionality in ethereal.
It just happens, it is unfortunate but can not be avoided.
(still   these structures they dont change THAT often do they?)

If and when there are good reasons to change packet_info or friends 
then these changes will be implemented and things living outside of
the tree might/will break. That is the cost of living outside the
tree.


I forsee changes in ethereal that will affect the API to access
internal functions in ethereal to continue forever,  or at least until
ethereal dies and there are no more changes.