ResCaf PLUGINS

This is kinda slapdash, half-assed, (and other words like that) but I hope
it helps.

All Plugins must descend from the abstract MacResourceHandler class
through whom they are referenced. This in turn extends JFrame because
they are intended to be graphical, though they are not always graphically
realized - such as in a save. I have tried to separate this with a
display() method, but maybe I should do it differently - like have JFrame
be a display return type rather than the overall superclass.

In any case the key parts are:
1) The type signatures. The plugin should return the 4-Letter types (as
   a String array) it can handle. Failure to do so will cause the plugin
   NOT to be registered and called.

2) The init() method kicks off the main processing of the plugin. There it
   will receive a ResourceType object containing the Resources of the type
   being handled. From it, the plugin can access the raw data to be
   parsed.

3) The display() method is called when the the handler is displayed in its
   area, so this would be a good place for the handler to draw up its GUI
   components.
 
4) The save() method asks the plugin to write the Resources as it sees fit
   in the given directory.

5) The about() method lets the plugin return some info about itself.

The plugin will also be given the main ResourceModel object i.e. ALL the
Resources. This is so the plugin can request Resources of additional
ResourceTypes it may need to fulfill its function. Several ResourceTypes
make references to other types, or you may want to handle several related
types altogether, such as various types of Icons.

Hopefully the basic included Handlers will offer a good enough example to
get you started. For some reason they always use JTable ;-)


Someone want to write plugins for:
   cicn <-- well I did figure out something - don't know how good it is
   ppat
   clut
   PICT
   snd <- now that would be cool
?


-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
$Id: PLUGINS.txt,v 1.1 2000/07/15 20:45:57 gbsmith Exp gbsmith $
