Plug-ins (also called add-ons, plug-ins, add-ons or add-ons) are programs written according to certain standard application program interfaces. It can only run under the system platform specified by the program (possibly supporting multiple platforms at the same time), and cannot run independently of the specified platform.
Because plug-ins need to call the function library or data provided by the original pure system. Many softwares have plug-ins, and there are countless types of plug-ins. For example, in IE, after installing the related plug-ins, the WEB browser can directly call the plug-in program to handle specific types of files.
The orientation of plug-ins is to develop programs and realize the functions that the original pure system platform and application software platform do not have. They can only run under the system platform specified by the program (possibly supporting multiple platforms at the same time), and cannot run independently from the specified platform, because plug-ins need to call the function library or data provided by the original pure system.
Development history:
The appearance of plug-ins can be traced back to1mid-1970s. When EDT text editor runs UnisysVS/9 operating system on Univac90/60 series mainframes, it provides a function that the editor can run a program and allow the program to enter the editor's buffer, thus allowing external programs to obtain the task being edited in memory.
Plug-ins allow editors to edit the text on the buffer, which is shared by editors and plug-ins. Fortran compiler uses these characteristics to make the internal compilation of Fortran program editable by EDT.