Then they aren't really plugins, are they? Plugins are basically DLLs, and DLLs get loaded at run time. If you want to link them at compile time, then you use static libraries.I would like to know if it is possible to avoid this behavior (and consequently also the slowdown) and embed the plugins into the executable at the compile time.
If your slowdown is because you are loading all of the plugins at once during startup, then maybe you can implement a strategy where the plugin is not fully loaded until it is actually needed (on-demand loading). For example, instead of a single plugin interface, implement two, one that does minimal initialization - just enough to load an icon or some other placeholder to show it is available, and another that loads the full plugin when its functionality is actually needed.
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