Hi Andreas,

> What's the point of your message? I see a vast number of arguments that seem
> to be making _my_ point rather than yours as the problems you describe
> clearly result from plugin conflicts. 

    If you read between the paragraphs and between the lines,
    you will see I made _my_ points quite clear and strongly sound.
    (and it's not the first time either ;-)

> As you don't have an answer to this problem 

    I think I do. Did you notice that for the last couple releases of MobVM.
    the plugin directory is changed automagically.

    From next release, there will only be SqM.exe and SqM.ini at the root.
    SqMOM.ini and all dll are in the plugin directory, the name of which is
    different from release to release.

> it appears to me that the more conservative approach of having
> everything builtin is clearly preferrable (since it rules out the vast
> majority of the problems you are seeing).

    My 'weird problems' reported in previous posting is proof that
    the conservative approach doesn't solve the 'plugin conflict' problem.

> Also, as for "eating your own dog food" I do this on a daily basis as I am
> running a variety of VMs and images in various combinations. 

    There are many different "dog food" waiting to be eaten ;-)
    The two that I am referring to are the 'dynamic, late binding'
    and 'true plugin'.

> It is _exactly_ this what led me to come to the conclusion that 
> for the end-user the best you can do is to provide a solution which 
> rules out the potential for conflicts as far as possible.

    I proved that the 'builtin' solution does not solve the problem.   

> Considering this, what is it you are trying to say?

    Considering that the 'builtin' solution does not solve the problems
    that it was suppoed to solve.

    Considering that the new design of looking for the plugins only
    at one known location does solve the problems of conflicting
    plugins.

    Considering that true plugins are nicer and better designed 
    than stuckins.

    Considering that MobVM can do anything that the legacy VM
    can do and NOT the other way around (due to the fact that
    MobVM is pretty well componentized).

    I would say that let's perfect the plugin design.

    Let's componentize the VM.
    Let's make everything an object from ground zero.
    Let's make a Window/Display object, a BrowserPlugin object.
    Let's make a BytecodeInterpreter object.
    Let's make an ObjectMemory object.
    Let's make everything an object, even in the VM

    I know, I know, I know,
    I am 'preaching to the choir'.

    Better shut up now ;-)

    Cheers,

    PhiHo.

    P.S: It takes an intelligent person to come up with a nice solution .
            It takes an equally intteligent and wise and brave person to 
            regconise the short comings of his solution and correct them.