Input Managers are not 'plug-ins'

From MDJ
With yesterday's release of Safari 3.1, and yet another round of broken Input Managers, there's once again an opportunity to point out a real problem in how the Mac press is covering programs like Inquisitor that work by patching the system or other applications. Traditionally, the name for code that runs without support in another process’s address space is a hack, or if you’re being nice, a patch. The purpose of such code is to intercept either an application or the system as it tries to perform a specified task, so the patch code can supplement or replace that task with its own action, and then return control to the original code.

What’s the problem? Sites like The Unofficial Apple Weblog, in its coverage of Inquisitor 3, insist on calling these Input Manager hacks “plug-ins,” implying a level of architectural and technical support that simply does not exist.

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