[vlc-devel] Plug-in VLC

[jpd at videolan.org]

On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 03:04:07PM +0200, Mazuho wrote:
> We are trying to develop a plug-in for VLC. Our goal with this plug-in
> is that the user won't have to download a new version of VLC, only the
> plug-in. If I have grasped the general terminology; this is generally
> what plug-ins are for, correct? [...]

You are correct that plug-ins can be used this way, and if so they
generally have an independent API and can ideally be used from one
version of the program to the next.

VLC uses modules that are not plugins in this sense.

If you want to add functionality to VLC it is easier to contribute
source to the main tree than to maintain your own and distribute
binaries. This isn't merely a technical issue, there is also the issue
that VLC is under GPL.