Make it possible to implement plugins externally as entry-points?

[pradyunsg]

I see that there are a lot of requests to implement additional plugins for this package. It seems like there is sufficient interest that it would make sense to make it possible to implement plugins outside of this package, that this package can then utilize.

https://amir.rachum.com/blog/2017/07/28/python-entry-points/ does a really good job of explaining how to use the Python packaging mechanism (entry points) for doing something like this!

[psss]

Hi, support for enabling plugins from custom location is already there. See the general config section of the documentation for details. The only thing you need to do is provide path to your plugins directory. Is there anything missing in the current implementation?

[pradyunsg]

Being able to provide plugins via the entry points mechanism would allow making pip-installable plugins, making it possible to have reusable plugins that can be collaborated on outside of this project.

[psss]

I'm not familiar with the entry points machanism, but from what I understand this would provide some more flexibility and consistency, which definitely makes sense to me. Such improvements would definitely be welcome.