Plugins are a fundamental and fairly obvious software-engineering idea (going way back), which though formerly ‘just’ a utilitarian tool, have become a popular-computing & Internet sensation. They’re all the rage now.
A plugin is a relatively small & limited-scope piece of special-purpose software that can be optionally added to another more general-purpose & full-featured software platform, to do something that the larger stand-alone platform doesn’t. The Firefox browser, and the WordPress site-platform are enjoying high-profile plugin manias.
Plugins are fairly easy to do. People with quite modest programming savvy, can tackle (simpler, smaller) plugin-projects. Interest in plugin collections, and the relatively low entry-threshold for participation, create a new venue for enticing contributing recruits to the parent platform, who in turn facilitate further engagement by those attracted to the novel functionality of various plugins they provide (which the parent software itself didn’t have).
The success of plugins owes a lot to social networking, users of which want ‘whatever’ platform they might find themselves using, to support their favorite social sites. Promoters of social services, in turn, want their users to remain, ahem, plugged in to the service, and so they are avid to support the proliferation of plugins, which help to project their business operations into any & all corners of the Web.
Plugins owe plenty to Internet advertisers, who never met an envelope they could resist pushing to destruction. Plugins aimed at taming the obnoxious aggression, avarice and outright malice that are so often encountered on the Internet, give millions a sense of control, empowerment and accomplishment, by successfully combating unwanted imagery, animation, scripting, spying, tracking, data-mining … and all of tomorrow’s as-yet unborn diseases of our wonderful Internet.
And then there is the vast, motley inventory of ‘little’ plugins – the real plugins – which do no end of nifty things, most of which you never realized existed, until you read the description of what it does, and immediately realize you must have it.
The names by which these software-components are known is a minor Tower of Babel, the saving grace being the wider computer & Internet culture has been a language-offender, all along. Plugin, module, extension, add-on start the synonyms.
Once upon a time Henry Ford produced a hot-selling automobile in any color you wanted – as long as it was black. Then marketing discovered plugins.
Old version: ===================
The <em>plugin</em> is a fundamental and basically-obvious software-engineering idea (going way back), which though formerly utilitarian, has become a popular-computing & Internet sensation. They’re all the rage, now.
A plugin is a piece of special-purpose software that one optionally adds to another more general-purpose software platform, to do something that the platform doesn’t. The Firefox browser, and the WordPress blog-ware, are enjoying high-profile plugin manias.
Plugins are fairly easy to do. People with quite modest programming savvy, can tackle (simpler, smaller) plugin-projects. Interest in plugin collections, and the relatively low entry-threshold for participation, create a new venue for enticing contributing recruits to the parent platform, who in turn facilitate further engagement by those attracted to the novel functionality of various plugins they provide (which the parent software itself didn’t have).
The success of plugins owes a lot to social networking, users of which want ‘whatever’ platform they might find themselves using, to support their favorite social sites. Promoters of social services, in turn, want their users to remain, ahem, plugged in to the service, and so they are avid to support the proliferation of plugins, which help to project their business operations into any & all corners of the Web.
Plugins owe plenty to Internet advertisers, who never met an envelope they could resist pushing to destruction. Plugins aimed at taming the obnoxious aggression, avarice and outright malice that so often encountered on the Internet, give millions a sense of control, empowerment and accomplishment, by successfully combating unwanted imagery, animation, scripting, spying, tracking, data-mining … and all of tomorrow’s as-yet unborn diseases of our wonderful Internet.
And then there is the vast, motley inventory of ‘little’ plugins – the <em>real</em> plugins – which do no end of nifty things, half of which you never realized existed, until you read the description of what it does, and immediately realize you must have it.
Once upon a time Henry Ford produced hot-selling automobiles in any color you wanted – as long as it was black. Then – omg – along came plugins.