This is more flexible and extensible.

This avoids going through the linked list of modules. This is fine so
long as the module structure is indeed not in the list.

This should ease later implementation of proper error handling.

Again, this should help fix leaks in error paths.

macosx: use an updated API to set the behavior of menu bar and Dock in fullscreen mode on 10.6&later

this allows the user to access the Dock while in fullscreen mode in contrast to the previous implementation. behavior on 10.5 did not change.

Modules are created at initialization and destroyed at exit (after all
VLC threads are terminated) There is no need to count references.

This property is fundamentally per-plugin, not per-submodule.

This field is never used for submodules, and in fact there would be no
way to show it in the (current) UI.