Industrial Automation Software,Process Control,Distributed Control Systems,DCS, OPC, OPC-UA, Programmable Logic

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Posted by: Sriharsha Vardhan	Wednesday, July 18, 2007
I cant find any reference which explains how Add-ins, Plug-ins and Extensions differ from one other. I just cant accept them to be synonyms. Here is an account of how I interpret each one. Please correct me or point me to appropriate source. Add-ins I guess add-ins are those modules which bring-in a specific fuctionality, at runtime, for such requirements which are unknown at build time. That mean Application is unaware about source of Add-ins. Normally they are chosen from list to add. eg.Excel Ad-Ins Plug-ins I guess Plug-ins are those modules for which an adapter is built inside the application at build time. Thus a trust relation ship exists between application and Plug-In at Runtime. Extensions I guess Extensions are those modules which are added to bring in additional functionality by installation and probably with a restart of main application. Extensions operate in isolation with build time functionality.


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Re: Add-ins Plug-ins Extensions

By Sreejumon on Sunday, July 22, 2007

Hello Harsha,

According to me Add-ins, Add-on, Plug-in, Plugin etc are same. Yes, I agree. "extension" is different from add-ins.

Here is the definition which I got from wikipedia.

A plugin (plug-in, addin, add-in, addon or add-on) is a computer program that interacts with a main (or host) application to provide a certain, usually very specific, function "on demand". Sometimes, a plugin is used to separate the plugin code from the main program because of incompatible licenses.

Plugins are slightly different from extensions, which modify or add to existing functionality. The main difference is that plugins generally rely on the main application's user interface and have a well-defined boundary to their possible set of actions. Extensions generally have fewer restrictions on their actions, and may provide their own user interfaces. They sometimes are used to decrease the size of the main application and offer optional functions.

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