I've got an application that has been growing bigger and more complex over the last few years. Lately, we've developed the desire to allow our customers to add functionality via a plugin interface.

The basic goals are:

• Plugins can be written in many languages - Perl, C, VB, Python, etc.
• The mechanism should work on both unix and Windows systems.
• Loading and running plugins should not be "too resource intensive".

The approach that comes to mind is to use either shared libraries or executables with a predefined interface.

If I use libraries, can I create an XS or Inline::C style interface that will let me talk to multiple different libraries?

If I use separate executables, what should I be considering for passing data and commands between application and the plugins?

I'm looking for general thoughts and leaders to further research. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

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