[news.eclipse.tools] Re: Plugin that implements its own interface, how c

[Jared Burns <jared-eclipse@xxxxxxxxx>]

We do this in debug land using a public "factory" that will return objects 
that implement our interfaces. JDIDebugModel is a public class (that is, 
it's defined in a package without the word "internal" in it) that provides 
static methods like createExceptionBreakpoint, createMethodBreakpoint, etc.

These methods return an implementation of the public interfaces we provide.

- Jared

Kevin wrote:
> My example always goes back to a simple plugin like a MenuBar. If I wrote
> a plugin that provides and interface AND implements it, so that other
> plugins can use my plugins implementation, how would other plugins
> "depend" upon mine and make calls to it? Normally, a plugin provides an
> extension point via an interface. Other plugins implement that interface
> and the main plugin calls into that interface to use the "unknown"
> implementation of plugins implementing the interface. This is quite the
> reverse. What if I don't want other plugins to implement my interface. I
> just want to provide a sort of "service" that other plugins can use.
> Another example might be a "global repository of data", where by my plugin
> provides an interface with getAttribute(), setAttribute(),
> removeAttribute(). My plugin would then implement this interface. Other
> plugins would use the interface (getting a ref to my implemented plugin of
> the interface), so that they could all "share" data using the interface
> calls since they all would get the same one implementation ref to my
> plugin.