These questions regard writing plugins for Smath.
First, I have been doing some research into what would be required to write plugins for Smath that would communicate with AutoCAD. I frequently write plugins for Autocad using VB.NET. The API for my version of AutoCAD utilizes .NET Framework 3.5, but Smath uses .NET Framework 2.0. Therefore, I believe that I would NOT be able to utilize AutoCAD's .NET 3.5 libraries from within Smath's API. However, I believe that I would be able to communicate with AutoCad using AutoCad's old COM object model. Can someone with more experience confirm or deny this?
Second, the problem with using COM is that it is old technology that is no longer being developed. (In fact, some more recent functionality within the AutoCAD API has not been exposed via COM, but only through .NET) In my very uninformed opinion, it would seem better if Smath utilized a more current .NET framework (4.0?). Is there a reason why Smath could not be converted from .NET Framework 2.0 to 4.0? I believe that this would allow Smath plugins to use available .NET libraries from any application using .NET 4.0 or later.
I am a novice programmer. Those who know more, please set me straight on this.
Thanks, Will
Will Massie
Mechanical Engineer
Oregon, USA