Feature Request: Whether the core's parser can support plugin mode so that everyone can develop a special parser for calcpad

[uyoufu]

I have an idea about whether the parser in Calcpad can support plugin mode, so that everyone can customize the keyword parser based on their field, and users can load it on demand, thereby improving the Calcpad ecosystem

Application scenarios

I now want to extend a keyword that can be called by remote functions, and if I add a keyword, I need to modify not only the core but also the prompts on the desktop at the same time, but this is a bit difficult for me due to the lack of sufficient understanding of the code.

But in plugin mode, I don't need to modify the core code, just load my parser, and it's very simple

[Proektsoftbg]

H!! Thank you!

Yes, plug-in API/Manager would be a really great feature for Calcpad. It has been also suggested several times by other community members. So, we will develop it some day.

And I completely agree that it is not easy to extend Calcpad features. It was not initially planned to be developed that far. Features were patched over and over in the free time and late nights. So, it is not your fault that you do not understand the code. It is simply not clear enough. Adding a new feature requires to make changes at many places of the code. It is getting difficult even for me, so I hope that one day I will have enough time to sit down and refactor all this mess before it gets a complete patchwork.

But all this will need time. Maybe if you tell me about your case, I can give you some guidelines how and where to make the required changes.

[imartincei]

I was researching the same thing, this is sample code that shows how to load a .dll file and return the results into a different program.
https://github.com/imartincei/CSPlugin

This is one simple way to extend Calcpad with minor changes to the source code. We would just need a version of #include that loads dll files, and parsing syntax to pass parameters and specify what types should be returned (number, vector, matrix, etc.)

[uyoufu]

H!! Thank you!

Yes, plug-in API/Manager would be a really great feature for Calcpad. It has been also suggested several times by other community members. So, we will develop it some day.

And I completely agree that it is not easy to extend Calcpad features. It was not initially planned to be developed that far. Features were patched over and over in the free time and late nights. So, it is not your fault that you do not understand the code. It is simply not clear enough. Adding a new feature requires to make changes at many places of the code. It is getting difficult even for me, so I hope that one day I will have enough time to sit down and refactor all this mess before it gets a complete patchwork.

But all this will need time. Maybe if you tell me about your case, I can give you some guidelines how and where to make the required changes.

Thank you very much, because remote calls need to be asynchronous, synchronization may affect performance, but the Calcpad core does not support asynchronous, I am currently evaluating the feasibility of remote calling solutions, if necessary, I will ask for advice

But the plug-in mode, I am really looking forward to it

[imartincei]

H!! Thank you!
Yes, plug-in API/Manager would be a really great feature for Calcpad. It has been also suggested several times by other community members. So, we will develop it some day.
And I completely agree that it is not easy to extend Calcpad features. It was not initially planned to be developed that far. Features were patched over and over in the free time and late nights. So, it is not your fault that you do not understand the code. It is simply not clear enough. Adding a new feature requires to make changes at many places of the code. It is getting difficult even for me, so I hope that one day I will have enough time to sit down and refactor all this mess before it gets a complete patchwork.
But all this will need time. Maybe if you tell me about your case, I can give you some guidelines how and where to make the required changes.

Thank you very much, because remote calls need to be asynchronous, synchronization may affect performance, but the Calcpad core does not support asynchronous, I am currently evaluating the feasibility of remote calling solutions, if necessary, I will ask for advice

But the plug-in mode, I am really looking forward to it

This is actually not true, most of Calcpad is async (the CalculateAsync function). I already have web API calls (including with JWT auth) working in a fork, my goal was the get #read and #include working with private S3 storage or gists.

So I wouldn't spend too much time on that aspect, I will work with Ned to get that ready for the main version. Been a bit busy of late studying for my PE exam, but I plan to get these items finalized in the upcoming months.

You are correct that the parsing is not async, but the actual execution of various items are (including MacroParser). I also made #include async fairly easily, and we could do something similar for executing dlls or maybe even local js files eventually.

[imartincei]

Another aspect I am pretty much done with and just need to finalize is JS interop. So getting Calcpad vars from and to JS in cpd files seamlessly.

[uyoufu]

I also made #include async fairly easily, and we could do something similar for executing dlls or maybe even local js files eventually.

I have noticed that Include is a Func delegate: public Func<string, Queue<string>, string> Include — it's not async.
Therefore, even if you perform asynchronous Task-based calls inside Include and use GetAwaiter().GetResult() to obtain the result, it will block the thread that the Parse method runs on in the core.

So, I think Parse should be designed to be asynchronous, but that may affect string parsing performance.

Could you give me some advice on how make #include asynchronous, thanks!

[imartincei]

I am using a modified version of CalculateAsync in Calcpad.Server, which is my basis for the vscode extension I am working on as a OS-independent UI for Calcpad.

Give me a few weeks to get that ready for public release and I can give you more details on how it works.