Writing FrAid Plugins

As already noted in the Graphics Panel section a FrAid plugin consists of:

• a FrAid library function - the entry point for your algorithm;
• a Behavior Bean - subclass of org.fraid.plugin.beans.BehaviorBean
• an Algorithm - subclass of org.fraid.plugin.algorithm.PaintAlgorithmThread

The task of writing FrAid plugins may look a bit complicated initially but may be considerably simplified if you use the simple org.fraid.utils.CreatePlugin code generator. Follow these steps:

• Download frd_gen_code.jar into the bin directory where all other FrAid jars live.
• Run java -cp frd_gen_code.jar org.fraid.utils.CreatePlugin -source myFun. Hint: see what files were created and where they are.
• Edit the generated files and make them do whatever you want. If this is the first time you do this you may skip this step and just observe how this works. What the default generated plugin does is just replicate the behavior of the plot library function and the associated FunctionPlotPlugIn.
• Run java -cp frd_gen_code.jar org.fraid.utils.CreatePlugin -compile myFun. If you get any compile errors try the -printOnly option and run the compilation manually (sometimes weird errors are reported which go away if you just compile manually).
• Optionally run java -cp frd_gen_code.jar org.fraid.utils.CreatePlugin -jar myFun if you want to jar the plugin. Hint: see what goes into the jar.
• Run fraid.sh or fraid.bat
• Execute your function - for the above example: myFun('sin(x), 'cos(x));
• Run java -cp frd_gen_code.jar org.fraid.utils.CreatePlugin -delete myFun if you want to start all over.

Don't forget to check the examples in the FrAid sources