Scripts can not be added as a playable source under e.g. Plugins, unlike Scripts, do not really provide new functionality to XBMC, instead what they do do is provide an easy way to present content listings in XBMC through the native GUI interface. Do not try to run Plugins files from the scripts window as that will only give you some weird error message. Instead, Plugins are automatically invoked when the user enters such a virtual folder. Unlike the Scripts, Plugins are not meant to be directly invoked by the user. Please do not confuse ' Plugins' with ' Scripts'. Scripts can be run from the XBMC Home Screen, from the 'Scripts' button between Settings and File-Manager. They are written using a regular text editor, and they are ready to be used when saved. Scripts are located in the scripts folder of XBMC, see the subsection Finding and Adding Scripts below. Current python scripts for XBMC include functions like cinema guides, TV-guides (EPG), e-mail clients, instant messaging, train-timetables, scripts to front-end control PVR software and hardware (like: MediaPortal, MythTV, TiVo, ReplayTV, Dreambox/DBox2), Internet-radio-station browsers (example SHOUTcast, Xm radio, Sirius Satellite Radio), P2P file-sharing downloaders (BitTorrent), IRC instant messaging chat, also casual games (sometimes also referred to as mini-games or party-games) such as Tetris, Snake, Space Invaders, Sudoku, and much more.

So normal users can add new functionality to XBMC themselves (using the easy to learn Python programming language) without an illegal copy of the XDK and without knowledge of the complex C/C++ programming language. XBMC features a Python Scripts Engine and WindowXML application framework (a XML-based widget toolkit for creating GUI windows) in a similar fashion to Apple Mac OS X Dashboard Widgets and Microsoft Gadgets in Windows Sidebar. 1.1 Python plugin versus script confusion.

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