XTool 2020 (Plugins)

[elit]

Now that I think about it, this could be also a way to make xtool codec-universal. Imagine this:
You would expose certain functions name calls as an open specification - similar to what FA does with CLS, like say:

_int64 compress(_int64 ...)
_int64 decompress(_int64 ...)

Next, xtool would always scan for an universal dll name, like custom_cmp.dll or whatever. On the command line, something like "customcodec" would be possible to type as a codec name, which would call for the interested functions from the library.

People would create those dlls on their demand from existing quickbms code amd implement those function names in them, for example copy lzss or yaz0 codec from quickbms source and make a dll with those above functions as a bridge.

Xtool would load custom dll and use those function calls to call the codec. Thogether with custom scripts, one could inflate almost anything now and would make the tool useful to the long future and tor many more current and future codecs and games, even if you cease to work on it one day. Same as FA is still so used today because of its universal container aspect and more.