GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 496912
"Add-ins" is not a user-friendly name. Let's try "Extensions"
Last modified: 2009-10-04 00:48:03 UTC
We use Mono.Addins as our underlying plugin/addin/extension/whateva technology, but the word "add-in" isn't very user friendly. We've already switched from "plugins" (or was it "plug-ins"?). In a recent blog [1], Aaron Bockover proposes that everyone switch to "Extensions" for various reasons including localization. What does everyone think about changing to use the word "extension"? Alternatively, going back to using "plugin" or "plug-in" might also be better than "add-in". [1] http://abock.org/2007/11/14/plugins-addins-extensions-oh-my/
Given the comment from Alessandro on my blog: "I vote for Extensions. In Italian you can’t really translate plugin, thus one has got to let it untraslated. Every time I use the word “plugin” I have to spend 5 min explaining it. So, besides being very culturally insensitive, it’s time consuming as well." I am in strong favor for "Extension" and not "Plugin." If the word doesn't make sense in a language other than English, it should not be used. Period.
I'm voting for "Extension". I think the localization argument is good enough, but it would be good to centralize gnome/mono apps on one term.
Shaun McCance states in bug #496944 (and others: > http://library.gnome.org/devel/gdp-style-guide/stable/gnome-glossary-generic-terms.html.en > > The currently recommended terminology in Gnome is "plugin". If the community > feels strongly that "extension" is a better word, then we can change the Style > Guide. But please, let's not have individual applications making this change > without a change to the Style Guide.
Setting the default assignee and QA Contact to "tomboy-maint@gnome.bugs".
This bug is more than a year old. Either we should close it as WONTFIX because it stays the way it is OR we should discuss a better name. The document gives away that Gnome still (even today) favors Plugin. Banshee closed the linked bug with the comment "We'll stick to 'extensions'". What are we going to do?
Again 2 month of inactivity. Any opinion on this? Should we discuss this on the mailing list (although I doubt that this would lead to a consensus)? Dragging this issue along without actions or a healthy discussion isn't helpful in my opinion.
Targetting a resolution for 0.15.x. After this cycle, I'll consider it too late to make this sort of change. We'll probably decide to stick with "add-ins", but it's worth discussing if we have time.
Sticking with add-ins.