AlekC wrote:I also thought that plugins created the necessary .dll files and other support material on the fly as it was installing?
Well not exactly, all the .dlls and support material are created at development time, tested and then packaged up in a zip so they can be installed on a production machine.
AlekC wrote:Wouldn't it have to seeing that everyone's site is not the same and writing over system files would be on a site per site basis
In theory if the are the same version then the code can be installed but yes it does depend on any other custom developments that may have been done
You are right that there is an overhead in creating plugins
But it does provide a way to manage the code and integration over time, keeping everything together so that it can be managed
Starting out you can make changes to the core and document them well so later they can be re-integrated into a new version
Also you can always test ideas in the core and create a plugin later