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source/blender/blenpluginapi/documentation.h

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+/**
+ * $Id$
+ *
+ * ***** BEGIN GPL/BL DUAL LICENSE BLOCK *****
+ *
+ * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+ * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
+ * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
+ * of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The Blender
+ * Foundation also sells licenses for use in proprietary software under
+ * the Blender License.  See http://www.blender.org/BL/ for information
+ * about this.
+ *
+ * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ * GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
+ * Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
+ *
+ * The Original Code is Copyright (C) 2001-2002 by NaN Holding BV.
+ * All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * The Original Code is: all of this file.
+ *
+ * Contributor(s): none yet.
+ *
+ * ***** END GPL/BL DUAL LICENSE BLOCK *****
+ *
+ * @mainpage plugin API - the access point for texture and sequence
+ * plugins
+ *
+ * @section about About the plugin API
+ *
+ * This API wraps functions that are used by texture and sequence
+ * plugins. They are explicitly wrapped in order to make the
+ * dependencies to the rest of the system clear.
+ *
+ * @section issues Known issues with the plugin API
+ *
+ * - It can be difficult at times to get access to the API functions
+ * linked into the final executable. On gcc, the -fpic and -shared
+ * flags take care of this. On Irix, -shared is needed, but you also
+ * need a reference to the function to get the handle. This has
+ * momentarily been taken care of by pluginapi_force_ref().
+ *
+ * - Plugins need to define three functions that are needed for
+ * version bookkeeping and information. The plugin loading code
+ * explicitly checks for these functions. The nanes depend on whether
+ * it is a texture or sequence plugin.
+ *
+ * - The plugin loading occurs in sequence.c and texture.c. The
+ * following functions are involved:
+ *   - open_plugin_seq() (used in readfile.c, editseq.c, sequence.c)
+ *   - add_plugin_seq()  (used in editseq.c, sequence.c)
+ *   - free_plugin_seq() (used in editseq.c, sequence.c)
+ *   - open_plugin_tex() (used in texture.c, readfile.c)
+ *   - add_plugin_tex()  (used in texture.c, buttons.c)
+ *   - free_plugin_tex() (used in texture.c, buttons.c)
+ *   - test_dlerr()      (used in texture.c, sequence.c)
+ * Since the plugins are about to phase out, we will not sanitize this
+ * code. It will be removed as soon as the replacing system is in
+ * place.
+ * 
+ * @section dependencies Dependencies
+ *
+ * The plugins wraps functions from IMB and BLI. In addition, they
+ * define some useful variables.
+ * */