[gmpi] Re: Instruments done, moving on to "Plugin Files"

  • From: Paul Davis <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 25 Aug 2004 20:44:04 -0400

>I would be happy to drop external metadata, and use only loading a library
>and calling a probe function.

when torben hohn and i implemented libfst (which provides in-process
support for win32/x86 VST plugins on linux using Wine), we found that
the cost of loading a lot of win32 dlls in that environment was
astronomically high. as a result, we adopted a system where the FST
API includes a call to return basic info about a plugin. if a cached
version of the info exists, and the cache is newer than the dll, we
use the cache. if the cache does not exist, or is older, the call
builds the cache (its a normal text file), and then returns the info.

this sped up loading VST plugins by a factor of about 100 :)

despite this, i think this should probably be left to hosts or wrapper
libraries, because of the issues with file ownership and cache
updating. the only acceptable metadata for me would be some way in
which text information was buried in a section of the object file, and
accessible. but if the plugin file format is a standard obejct format
(ELF, COFF, a.out, etc. etc), it would be really hard to do this in a
platform independent way.

--p


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