Mercurial > pidgin
diff doc/C-HOWTO.dox @ 10469:51b87da4e9f0
[gaim-migrate @ 11751]
Documentation updates
committer: Tailor Script <tailor@pidgin.im>
| author | Mark Doliner <mark@kingant.net> |
|---|---|
| date | Tue, 04 Jan 2005 01:38:26 +0000 |
| parents | 87d2f1a7f984 |
| children | 8f910263b4bb |
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--- a/doc/C-HOWTO.dox Mon Jan 03 18:20:22 2005 +0000 +++ b/doc/C-HOWTO.dox Tue Jan 04 01:38:26 2005 +0000 @@ -6,31 +6,32 @@ well as the perl and tcl loader plugins are written in C. @section getting_started Getting Started - To develop a plugin you need to have the gaim source code. It is generally a - good idea to compile against the same version of gaim that you are running. + To develop a plugin you need to have the Gaim source code. It is generally a + good idea to compile against the same version of Gaim that you are running. You may also want to develop against CVS. While we do NOT recomend this for - normal users, but there is an exception for developers. A lot tends to + normal users, it makes sense for plugin developers to use CVS to ensure their + plugins works with the most recent changes in Gaim. A lot tends to change between versions and it's much easier to fix your plugin as things change rather than waiting until the release. But please do not abuse CVS. Gaim puts a lot of strain on Source Forge's servers, and we do not need to add anymore to it. - If you choose not to head my warnings and develop against a version of gaim - that is different from what you're running, then you're gaim source must at + If you choose not to head my warnings and develop against a version of Gaim + that is different from what you're running, then your Gaim source must at the very least be configured. Note that just running configure will generally set the prefix to /usr/local. This shouldn't be a problem, except - that most packages compile and install gaim with /usr as the prefix. + that most packages compile and install Gaim with /usr as the prefix. All plugins must have @c GAIM_PLUGINS defined. You can choose to include @c internal.h to do this, but if you choose to do it this way it must be - included before any other gaim files. Likewise, if you choose to manually - define @c GAIM_PLUGINS, the definition must be before including any gaim + included before any other Gaim files. Likewise, if you choose to manually + define @c GAIM_PLUGINS, the definition must be before including any Gaim files. Failure to do so will produce the 'plugin foo could not be loaded for an unknown reason'. This is one of the hardest unknown reasons to track down, so let's try to avoid it at all costs ;) @section hello_world Hello World! - I know every tutorial has a hello world, so why should gaim be any different? + I know every tutorial has a hello world, so why should Gaim be any different? @code #define GAIM_PLUGINS @@ -89,7 +90,7 @@ Okay, so what does all this mean? We start off by defining @c GAIM_PLUGINS like described before. Next we include glib.h, mainly for gboolean and the glib wrappers of the standard c types. We could just use stdio and use - an int for the gboolean but since gaim uses glib internally, we might as + an int for the gboolean but since Gaim uses glib internally, we might as well do the same. Next, we include plugin.h which has all the plugin specific stuff that we @@ -97,13 +98,13 @@ and @c GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN(). Our last include is version.h which defines @c GAIM_MAJOR_VERSION, and - @c GAIM_MINOR_VERSION. Theres not much you need to know about these, except - that they are required and will stop your plugin from crashing Gaim when - something has changed that you plugin does not know about yet. + @c GAIM_MINOR_VERSION. There is not much you need to know about these, + except that they are required and will stop your plugin from crashing Gaim + when something has changed that you plugin does not know about yet. - plugin_load is not required. It is called when the plugin is loaded, so you - can initialize any variables and so on. But in this plugin we'll just use it - to display a message. + plugin_load is not required. It is called when the plugin is loaded so that + you can initialize any variables and so on. But in this plugin we'll just + use it to display a message. Next we have the @c GaimPluginInfo structure. Every plugin MUST have one of these. Below is a code snipet of the same struct used in @c hello_world with @@ -113,15 +114,15 @@ static GaimPluginInfo info = { GAIM_PLUGIN_MAGIC, /* Plugin magic, this should always be GAIM_PLUGIN_MAGIC. This value gets - incremented inside of gaim so that plugins - that haven't been updated yet, will fail to + incremented inside of Gaim so that plugins + that haven't been updated yet will fail to load and avoid potential crashes while loading old plugins. */ - GAIM_MAJOR_VERSION, /* This is also define in gaim. It helps - Gaim's plugin system tell what version of - this plugin was compiled for, and whether - or not loading it will cause problems + GAIM_MAJOR_VERSION, /* This is also defined in Gaim. It helps + Gaim's plugin system determine what version + of Gaim this plugin was compiled for, and + whether loading it will cause problems. */ GAIM_MINOR_VERSION, /* See previous */ GAIM_PLUGIN_STANDARD, /* GaimPluginType, there are 4 different values @@ -130,8 +131,8 @@ used. The second is GAIM_PLUGIN_STANDARD, this is the value most plugins will use. Next we have GAIM_PLUGIN_LOADER, this is - the type you want to load if you're plugin - is going to make it possible to load non + the type you want to load if your plugin + is going to make it possible to load non- native plugins. For example, perl and tcl. Last, we have GAIM_PLUGIN_PROTOCOL. If your plugin is going to allow the user to @@ -152,16 +153,19 @@ 0, /* This field is for plugin flags. Currently, the only flag available to plugins is invisible (GAIM_PLUGIN_FLAG_INVISIBLE). - The only plugins that current use this flag, - is the ssl plugin. + This plugin is currently used by the ssl + plugin, the tcl loader, and the perl + loaded. It causes the plugin to NOT + appear in the list of plugins in Gaim's + preferences window. */ - NULL, /* This is a glist of plugin dependencies. In - other words, a glist of plugin id's that + NULL, /* This is a GList of plugin dependencies. In + other words, a GList of plugin id's that your plugin depends on. If your plugin does not have any dependencies, set this - value to NULL + value to NULL. */ - GAIM_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, /* This is the priority gaim with give your + GAIM_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, /* This is the priority Gaim with give your plugin. There are three possible values for this field, GAIM_PRIORITY_DEFAULT, GAIM_PRIORITY_HIGHEST, and @@ -170,13 +174,13 @@ "core-hello_world", /* This is your plugin's id. There is a whole page dedicated to this in the - 'related-pages' section of the doxygen api. + 'related-pages' section of Gaim's API docs. */ "Hello World!", /* This is your plugin name. This is what will be displayed for your plugin in the ui. */ - VERSION, /* This is the version of your plugin. For - the sake of simplicity, I'm using the gaim + 1.1, /* This is the version of your plugin. For + the sake of simplicity, I'm using the Gaim version. */ @@ -196,31 +200,31 @@ GAIM_WEBSITE, /* This is the website for the plugin. This is helpful if users find bugs in your plugin so they can help to bring them to - your attention + your attention. */ - plugin_load, /* This is a pointer to a function for gaim to + plugin_load, /* This is a pointer to a function for Gaim to call when it is loading your plugin. It should be in the form of: gboolean function_name(GaimPlugin *plugin) - Returning TRUE will tell gaim to continue + Returning TRUE will tell Gaim to continue loading your plugin, while FALSE will tell - gaim to stop trying to load it. + Gaim to stop trying to load it. */ NULL, /* Same as above except it is called when - gaim tries to unload your plugin. It + Gaim tries to unload your plugin. It should be in the form of: gboolean function_name(GaimPlugin *plugin) - Where returning TRUE will tell gaim to + Where returning TRUE will tell Gaim to continue unloading and false to not continue unloading your plugin. */ NULL, /* Similar to the two above members, except - this is called when gaim tries to destory + this is called when Gaim tries to destory the plugin. This is generally only called when for some reason or another the plugin fails to probe correctly. It should be in @@ -261,8 +265,8 @@ Finally we have @c init_plugin and @c GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN. @c init_plugin is a function that gets called when Gaim probes the plugin. Most plugins will add their preferences to the pref tree here, more about that later. - @GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN is a macro that EVERY plugin MUST have. @GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN - tells gaim some very basic things about your plugin, like what name to use + @c GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN is a macro that EVERY plugin MUST have. @c GAIM_INIT_PLUGIN + tells Gaim some very basic things about your plugin, like what name to use if the plugin is compiled staticly, the @c init_plugin function, and the name of the @c GaimPluginInfo structure. As you may have guess this also gets read when Gaim is probing your plugin. If this is missing you