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Why are plugins "FORCED" onto a specific Menu?


KetchupKid

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I find the menu location choice of some authors for their plugins to be very questionable. The result is very long Effects and Adjustments menus, often with only one or two items listed in the submenus.

 

No way to move them or combine them into a more logical menu choice. Very frustrating, but I have been living with that scenario for a few years now.

 

Can someone create a plugin to allow moving plugins to different sub-menus?

 

Or can the Paint.net folk simply allow "slightly" more flexibility? Not to create new submenus that Paint.net folk do not want, but simply to allow moving a plug-in from one sub-menu (within Effects & Adjusments) to another and then to delete an empty submenu. Actually, I think when a submenu is empty, it does disappear - not sure.

Ketchup Kid

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Whether you agree or not, the author is giving away his/her work for free.  It is entirely their decision as to which menu or sub-menu their plugin resides in.  The author decides this location when the plugin is built, so there is no way to alter it - apart from appealing to the author ;)  Mostly I entirely agree with the placement of plugins within Paint.NET's menu system.  

 

So no, it's not possible to move the plugin location within the menu system.  

 

I DO understand your situation.  As the person maintaining the Plugin Index I have a huge number of plugins installed at any one time.  My best advice?  Cull some of the unused ones.  Really.

 

New sub-menus are created as needed.  If you remove the last plugin from a custom sub-menu it should disappear.

 

Note for this and your previous post - the plugin section is for publishing plugins.  Questions about individual plugins should be asked in the thread for that plugin.  Generalized plugin questions - like yours - belong elsewhere which is why I've moved both of your posts.

<moved to Paint.NET Discussion & Questions>

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It would also be a nightmare from a support standpoint.

 

"I CAN'T FIND GAUSSIAN BLUR"

"Well, it should be in Blurs..."

"NO IT ISNT I CANT FIND IT"

"Well, I, uh..."

"...Oh, sorry.  I found it.  I forgot, I placed it under the 'Captain Sparklepants Pony' submenu, it just made more sense."

 

 

Remember, there's one programmer (no such thing as Paint.NET "folks"), a handful of support personnel, and hundreds of plugins. :)

 

The Doctor: There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior... A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world.
Amy: But how did it end up in there?
The Doctor: You know fairy tales. A good wizard tricked it.
River Song: I hate good wizards in fairy tales; they always turn out to be him.

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Alternative idea.

I'm not sure how much more complicated this would be compared to organizing every single plugin or allowing users to organize their plugins, but as others have suggested before, a plugin "search" feature would be nice. Some people I think have even made their own fake example images of the feature, as to how it might look or function. Lots of plugins will always = long categories, but at least with the search we wouldn't need to dig for the plugins. lol

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All plugins based on the OptionBasedLibrary allow to define the location and the name in the menu (you are allowed to change the name because of translation). All these plugins allow to define a list of keywords which can be used to locate or categorize plugins.

So plugins are NOT FORCED onto a specific menu if the authors are spending time to impelement it.

For sure an UI solution provided by the application is preferred.

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What do people think of the idea of a "Most recently used" list of plugins at the top of the Effects menu?  Perhaps as a sub-menu of four to nine plugins?

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That's not a bad idea, I like the sound of 8. I will take anything to help with all these plugins I have lol. Yes, I have a lot, and yes, I actually use most of them since I like to experiment. How often I use each one, that's a different matter, but I do have a fair share of "favorites".

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I'm not sure why the word "FORCED" is being used here. This isn't a mafia racket. It's just how the application was designed.

 

Implementing a system to let you move things around would be a non-trivial amount of coding and testing, with very little benefit to most people.

 

My recommendation has always been simply to not install a billion plugins. You really don't need that many, I promise.

 

EER's idea is much simpler, much more practical, and probably does a better job solving what you think you need anyway.

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  • 2 years later...
On 5/8/2014 at 7:45 PM, Rick Brewster said:

This isn't a mafia racket.

You're too sensitive, Rick. :)  I was only referring to the fact that when you install a plugin, we have to leave it in whatever menu category the author puts it. I'll kepp living with things the way I have for the past few years - no sweat. It was only a suggestion.

 

And thanks to all the other comments made here by forum members. Some get rather sarcastic, but I'll live! B)

Ketchup Kid

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