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6 :     <title>Dynamic Plug-in Details</title>
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13 :     <td ALIGN=LEFT VALIGN=TOP COLSPAN="2" BGCOLOR="#0080C0"><b><font face="Arial,Helvetica"><font color="#FFFFFF">Dynamic
14 :     Plug-in Details</font></font></b></td>
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19 :     <p><b>Dynamic Plug-ins</b></p>
20 :     <p>This work is being done in conjunction with the <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/equinox">Equinox</a>
21 :     project.</p>
22 :     <p><i>Plug-in Deactivation </i> - (bug <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=36956">36956</a>)
23 :     In Eclipse plug-ins are activated once referenced and they remain in that
24 :     state for the duration of the user's Eclipse session. In an effort to
25 :     reduce memory footprint (amung other reasons) we are investigating allowing
26 :     plug-ins to become deactivated when they are not being used, and thus
27 :     that amount of memory could be reclaimed for use by the system.</p>
28 :     <p><i>Incremental Registry Resolution</i> - When a user installs new plug-ins
29 :     in Eclipse, they are currently forced to restart their system in order
30 :     for their changes to take effect. This is because currently the plug-in
31 :     registry is parsed when the system starts up and from that point forward
32 :     it remains static. We would like to change the plug-in registry resolution
33 :     to be dynamic, that is to allow the user to add new plug-ins to the system
34 :     and remove plug-ins from the system at any given point in time and have
35 :     the system react and behave appropriately.</p>
36 :     <p>&nbsp;</p>
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42 : rchaves 1.2 <p><b>Progress updates</b></p>
43 :     <p>September 25, 2003 - New API for dynamically installing plug-ins is available.
44 :     API changes:
45 :     <ul>
46 :     <li>new package org.eclipse.core.runtime.registry - this package provides an extension
47 :     registry, a simplified view of the plug-in registry. The extension registry (available
48 :     through the org.eclipse.core.runtime.Platform class) provides a way for
49 :     plug-ins to be notified when extensions are added to or removed from extension points.
50 :     </li>
51 :     <li>new methods in org.eclipse.core.runtime.Platform - the added methods allow clients to
52 :     install plug-ins dynamically and to listen to plug-in lifecycle events, such as
53 :     plug-in addition and activation.
54 :     </li>
55 :     </ul>
56 :     <b>N.B.</b> <i>-dynamic, a new command-line option was defined to put the platform in the
57 :     "dynamic mode". Currently, this option is required so the APIs described above can be used. This option
58 :     is temporary and will not be supported in future builds.
59 :     </i>
60 :     </p>
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