Replace get_identifier/get_description functions with strings.

This is the start of a new experimental branch, with the first objective being
the replacement of the get_description and get_identifier functions with
direct-access strings.

The reason for this change is to reduce code size and time of execution.
By replacing the functions with direct-access strings there is one less call
to be done in those cases where the description has to be fetched.

The solution is not yet definitive though, there are a couple of problems to
take care of:

 - the use of N_() still makes it easy to internationalise the strings, but it
   requires for the string to be found on libxine2 catalog, which is not
   exactly a nice solution for external plugins;
 - it would be simpler to re-use the id field in plugin_info_t, and then move
   description there; it should reduce memory usage for the class structures;
 - I'm not really aware of any reason why get_description and get_identifier
   were used beside the idea of making i18n simpler.

This probably would break a couple of frontends, especially if they have some
internal plugins (like post-plugins), so it needs to be reviewed carefully
before merging in 1.2 branch. My current goal is to get this in before 1.2
though, rather than waiting for 1.3.

1 files changed, 9 insertions, 9 deletions

diff --git a/src/input/input_plugin.h b/src/input/input_plugin.h
index 3f59bab6c..31a4f9846 100644
--- a/src/input/input_plugin.h
+++ b/src/input/input_plugin.h
@@ -35,7 +35,7 @@
 #  include <xine/configfile.h>
 #endif
 
-#define INPUT_PLUGIN_IFACE_VERSION   17
+#define INPUT_PLUGIN_IFACE_VERSION   18
  
 typedef struct input_class_s input_class_t ;
 typedef struct input_plugin_s input_plugin_t;
@@ -48,17 +48,17 @@ struct input_class_s {
    */
   input_plugin_t* (*get_instance) (input_class_t *this, xine_stream_t *stream, const char *mrl);
 
-  /*
-   * return short, human readable identifier for this plugin class
-   * The returned string should not be malloc'd as it is not freed.
+  /**
+   * @brief short human readable identifier for this plugin class
    */
-  const char* (*get_identifier) (input_class_t *this);
+  const char *identifier;
 
-  /*
-   * return human readable (verbose = 1 line) description for 
-   * this plugin class
+  /**
+   * @brief human readable (verbose = 1 line) description for this plugin class
+   *
+   * The description is passed to gettext() to internationalise.
    */
-  const char* (*get_description) (input_class_t *this);
+  const char *description;
 
   /*
    * ls function, optional: may be NULL