Runtime - Run 1.3 plugins in 1.4 without any modification!

Hello,

I'm here to announce a new project I am working on.
It is called Runtime. Runtime is a plugin that allows loading of 1.3 plugins in 1.4 without any modification of the original plugin.

It works by declaring 1.3 classes on top of 1.4 classes. The 1.3 classes are written from scratch to intercept the API call and redirect it to the respective 1.4 API call.

For example, if I were to run

PHP:

$this->api->run();


The 1.3 run() call will be intercepted and then redirected to

PHP:

$this->getRuntime()->getServer()->dispatchCommand();


Of course, the arguments will be modified to allow a smooth redirection. For example, if I were to get a Player object from PlayerAPI(1.3), the get() method will be intercepted and redirected to the 1.4 API, which gives a Player object for 1.4 instead. The Runtime will make another Player object compatible with 1.3, assign values from the 1.4 Player to the 1.3 Player and return that for the get() call.

If you are feeling limited with the 1.3 API, plugin developers can also use the 1.4 API while coding the rest of their plugin in 1.3. They can gain access to the 1.4 server object by

PHP:

$this->getRuntime()->getServer();


Please note that some 1.3 features may not be available in The Runtime.

The Runtime is still in early development, but I'll let you guys know when I have a working version!

Remember that after the release of PocketMine-MP Alpha_1.4, all the plugins that use 1.3.12 or lower will be given an "Outdated" prefix (so the authors can update them) and no new plugins for the old API will be allowed to be released or updated (so you have to update them to 1.4)

It's confusing because it's very different from the old API, but it's a lot better. I don't understand it too much yet, but I do know of a lot of the new possibilities with the new API and trust me, it's really worth it! The sad thing is that no one really has any good tutorials right now. @shoghicp started one, but is waiting until he finishes coding the 1.4 update to finish because some things may change before it's done.

The new API is a lot more object oriented(in fact, it is fully object oriented), which from a skilled programmer's point of view is much cleaner than a procedural one. However, I agree on the point that it can be quite confusing to learn.

I may update and work more on my CakeFramework to 1.4 soon for easy building of plugins without too much complexity

Yes, this is mainly to ease transition between old servers to new servers and for servers using proprietary plugins which for them can be quite expensive to update their old API to the new API.

I can see where you are coming from though to encourage use of 1.4 API, but it would make much more transitional sense to allow release and update of old API plugins.

That way they'll just use the old API. If they update things, shouldn't they use the new API instead of using a compatibility layer to run?

Well, you need to remember that there will still be servers running 1.3 and that developers can't instantly turn their heavily time invested 1.3 plugins to 1.4. They will also need to fix bugs they have in their old plugin versions. You need to slowly deprecate 1.3, cutting plugin submission after about a month. As a project manager and API developer, you don't just press the kill switch and be done with it.