Synapse

Writing plugins in a scripting language

Asked by ziggystar

From what I've read so far, plugins are written in Vala, which must be compiled. I think it would be more beneficial if writing plugins was possible using a scripting language (like Python). I don't want to get the sources and compiler just to write a plugin that opens the browser with a Wikipedia search (what I'd like to have in Synapse).

I guess others feel the same. How about Lua?

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Michal Hruby (mhr3) said : 		#1

Lua is surely not planned, python is questionable, it might have some performance issues...

As for Wikipedia search, all you have to do is download the wikipedia opensearch xml (for example this one > http://mycroft.mozdev.org/installos.php.html/28561/wikipedia.xml) and add it to synapse's config file. (http://synapse.zeitgeist-project.com/wiki/index.php?title=Plugins/Configuration)

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Vadim Peretokin (vperetokin) said : 		#2

I'd agree with Lua as a choice (little performance issues, easy to use).

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Stuart Colville (muffinresearch) said : 		#3

Python-based plugins would be a really nice feature to have, and would certainly lower the barrier to building a comprehensive set of useful additional features, without bloating the core application.

I don't see where performance issues should be too much of an issue, especially as it's most likely plugins are going to be written to provide additional actions acting on the data input by users. Any interface/options could be handled within synapse itself, based on the current configuration format used currently which could be shared with and read from the python plugin.

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Michal Hruby (mhr3) said : 		#4

Python plugins are planned, the question is how they'll be done, because there will be performance issues connected with running an interpreter in the main process and python's "feature" of locking gui threads when it's doing something...

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