=PlugMan: A simple but powerful Ruby plugin framework.

 Author: Aaron P (mailto:[email protected])
 Copyright: Copyright (c)2008 Aaron P
 License: Distributed under the same terms as Ruby.

PlugMan is a simple and effective plugin framework for building dynamic and extensible Ruby applications. If you need plugins/addons/extensions in your application, PlugMan is for you. PlugMan also includes demos to make learning PlugMan very easy. 

== Requirements
Ruby!  That's all.  All the files that comprise PlugMan are in the ./src dir (yes, just those two .rb files.)  

In ./src/demos are a couple of demo programmes to show PlugMan in action.  They aren't necessary for PlugMan actual (so you can safely delete them if you don't need a leg-up!)  To run them, from the ./src dir, execute 'ruby ./demos/GtkDemo.rb' or 'ruby ./demos/Texter.rb' Alternatively, the rake targets "gtk_demo" and "text_demo" can be used.

The GtkDemo makes use of a few *nix type utilities such as df and fortune.  It also requires the libgtk2-ruby libraries to be available. The Texter demo is a console application that does not have any external dependencies; it still demonstrates the plugin dependency and extension point processing of PlugMan.

== TODO:
 - Gem
 - More tests
 - More doco
 - File headers
 - Namespace
 - Hardening for real-world use cases (it works find for my needs, perhaps other developers will use it differently, causing breakages.)

Future?  Handling cyclic plugin dependencies.  Perhaps a plugin query language to make finding plugins more powerful.

== Version History

0.0.1,  29-Feb-2008
    - First release, a functional and easy to use plugin architecture that supports plugin dependencies and extension points.

0.0.2,  04-Mar-2008
    - Removed PluginMeta.rb and incorporated it into Plugin.rb. Fixed some doco. Added a Rakefile.