[Opensim-dev] Reducing the plugin mechanisms

[Diva Canto]

We had this conversation today in the IRC about the several plugin 
mechanisms currently being used by assorted parts of OpenSim. A couple 
of years ago, we made a big push towards the [new] Region Modules 
mechanism, and that placed about 95% of simulator plugins in that 
bandwagon. However, a couple of them are still using their own raw 
"pluginning," and that makes them hard to (1) explain and (2) distribute 
as 3rd party packages. They were left behind.

One of them is Physics, the other is the client implementations. I would 
like to propose that we move these last 2 renegades to the Region Module 
plugin mechanism, so to reduce entropy and to make them easier to 
package. From our conversation, moving the Physics plugins to region 
modules is peaceful. I haven't looked at the client dll yet, but I've 
been told that people experimenting with other client protocols are 
using region modules anyway.

This affects the MOSES group developing the PhysX plugin, but it should 
be straightforward to adjust and it has advantages. Once we move the 
existing physics plugins to this new mechanism, you should be able to do 
exactly the same to yours -- the changes aren't that big, and it doesn't 
affect the Physics interface at all; it's just the way of connecting the 
physics implementation to the interface. Plus it will make it somewhat 
easier for you to make your physics plugin available for external 
testers at intermediate (early) times, if you want.

Any objections?