Things to come

sirinsidiator · May 2019

I wrote a blog post outlining some of the projects I am currently working on or plan to work on in the forseeable future. Most of them are intended to help authors to create addons more easily and efficiently, which will hopefully ensure that the addon community continues to grow and prosper.

NupidStoob · May 2019

The trend seems to set on adding a ton of libraries for every little thing. As user this is quite frustrating recently as not every addon or update includes said libraries. Countless times now I had to open up minion just to download a few more libraries that then end up getting used by only a single addon. It becomes even more of a nuisance when using an addon to manage addon profiles as every profile needs to get the new libraries added. Now play on multiple characters with different addon setups and you end up reloading UI more than actually playing.

How do libraries impact performance? Especially on older machines? If they are activated but not used will they affect performance in any way? I tend to turn of almost all addons for trials and PvP as they noticeably impact performance, but if Libraries are excluded from this I would already have an easier time as I could always keep them on.

Are there any plans on addressing this? I understand that Libraries can make addon authors lives easier, but the whole purpose of addons is to make for a better user experience. Lately this has been devolving and I have more than once now considered to just throw out most addons.

Thank you for your time and the work you put into the community.

Baertram · May 2019

How do libraries impact performance? Especially on older machines? If they are activated but not used will they affect performance in any way?

Libraries are addon source code like addons itsself are too. So there is only a performance impact if the code is written bad or unneeded. The same like with addons as well.
The benefit of libraries is: You are able to update and fix stuff without having to update several addons which use thie "same code" as well.
If they are activated but not used the addon activating it is coded bad!
If they are activated manually and not used nothing happens at all as they won't get initiated. Or if they are the code is loaded but no function of it is executed or used. There are libraries which execute code if they are activatzed, automatically. But they are build this way and act like an addon. They are just a lib as several addons might need to depend on it so they get loaded in the correct order so all addons work together.

I know what you mean by "reloading UI more than playing" but think about our addon devs problems as well:
We need more time to maintain addons if we bundle the libraries with the addons. Each time we need to update it we need to fix, update the addon files, versions, api version, build zip files, bundle the newest libraries and check WHICH ones are the newest manually, upload the zip file and check everything worked. This time takes WAY more time then YOU need to update your profiles of addons.
I want to play too.
If you got so many addons you maybe might need to strip some, or use less profiles.
The better user experience is still given, it just needs to invest time on both sides now.

Hint for automatically enabling dependencies, working with addon profile manager "Circonians Addon Selector":
Use "Votans Addon List".
It will automatically enable libraries and other addons needed for the addon which you just enable.

sirinsidiator · May 2019

The performance impact depends on what a library does. If it is just a collection of functions for other addons to call, it won't have any real impact when it is active and no other addon calls those functions. Some libraries provide functions that require them to keep track of the game state, so they can potentially have an impact even when no addons actively use them.

The current state of affairs is due to the transition from the old way of handling libraries to the new one. I believe it is a necessary step for the long-term health of the addon infrastructure and things will get better again, once most libraries and addons have been updated accordingly. Minion 4 will be able to handle installing required libraries automatically, which will also play a huge role in all of this.