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Unread 09-02-2012, 05:07 PM
moebius92 moebius92 is offline
The Undying
Interface Author - Click to view interfaces
 
Join Date: Sep 2010
Posts: 51
Quote:
Originally Posted by moebius92
So, I think the challenge to us, as plugin authors, is - use the functionality they've provided to the fullest (I mean, there's my plugin handling fellowship/raid vitals, and that's it. And it's being written by someone that doesn't understand the design philosophy behind what's probably the most popular set of WoW raid vitals in existence - which is kind of funny from my end, but probably less funny from the user's end). Go off and write something that the API doesn't explicitly support. Or better yet, write something that people are going to say, "you can't write a plugin that does X" - write a threat meter, write an equipment manger, write a skill cooldown tracker. And if you do that? ...well, at the very least, it'll give the devs a signal of what unimplemented features there's a demand for. At the best? Incentive - "that's what people who are willing to put the effort in wnat, and if I implement this, I can give it to them", inspiration - "imagine what they could do if they had more access, had a more expansive API?", and satisfaction - "look at what they've done with the things I've added to the API."
Quoting myself, because why not?

I'd like to note that I've written two plugins which I'd consider to have pushed the envelope of what the plugin system can do:

1. DPSMeter - The unsupported thing was reading the total amount of damage done from the combat log. These days, we have the ability to read from the chat pane, and any basic DPS meter can read the combat log directly, without using external scripts.

2. SkillInfo - This plugin uses the combat log, changes in the player's power, and key presses and quickslot clicks to identify when a skill is used. It also has all of the skill cooldown times coded in, although that requires some configuration on the users part (to indicate legacies on LIs and their trait setup), allowing you to track skill cooldowns. With the additions to the API that are coming with RoR, we should now be able to track most skill uses directly, via their reset time.

I'm not arrogant enough to believe that these things are getting implemented because I went out and wrote a plugin that did it first (And that speaks more to the amount of arrogance needed, and not how arrogant I am. Because quite frankly? I'm incredibly arrogant.), but I do want to point out that going out trying to push the envelope is always rewarding. Sometimes pushing the envelope just results in a mangled envelope. And sometimes it results in a bigger envelope. But I think it is always worth doing. And the rewards? Sometimes the reward is in what you learn, sometimes the reward is in what you accomplish, and sometimes the reward is in the knowledge that now you can go back and do it right.
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