when did plugins come about??

[ritaheed]

just out of curosity......? anyone know?

[massplanck]

10:30 May 17th 1998

[massplanck]

;) I dunno. Direct xones were the first to appear i think.

[Microdot]

just out of curosity......? anyone know?

dunno, but we first used em around '98

[TechMouse]

Depends what you mean by plugin.

A plugin is any computer program which enhances the functionality of another computer program using a standardised interface.

The first notable plugins surfaced in the 1970s on UNIX operating systems, usually for developer and sysadmin applications. Basically, professional geeks adding extra bits of functionality to the application they used daily. In fact, in some ways the whole architecture of UNIX makes it one big plugin architecture.

The first plugins on desktop computers came about for applications like Quark XPress on the Apple Mac in the late 80s. All sorts of stuff has come about since then.

VST was launched in 1996.

The first version of DirectX came out in 1995, but AFAIK it was more aimed at gamers. I don't think they started doing pro-audio plugins until much later.