[Ffmpeg-devel] Using ffmpeg libs in an OSS project is a nightmare

[Diego Biurrun]

On Sat, Aug 06, 2005 at 12:36:59AM +0200, Kenneth Lavrsen wrote:
> 
> My name is Kenneth Lavrsen. I maintain the project Motion which has been 
> using ffmpeg for years now. (yes please add to the list).
> 
> http://www.lavrsen.dk/twiki/bin/view/Motion/WebHome

Added.

> Problem 1 and the most severe and EASY TO FIX
> 
> From your website: "New, official "releases" are few and far between. In 
> short, if you want to work with FFmpeg, you are advised to go along with 
> CVS development rather than relying on formal releases."  This is the key 
> problem. This is BAD ADVICE and a BAD POLICY. At least it is for the 
> libraries. Maybe this is acceptable for the command line tools which do not 
> change user interface that much and where the user adjustment is keying 
> something different. But for the libraries changing API all the time this 
> is a nightmare.

There is a solution to this problem available to you: Include a working
CVS snapshot of FFmpeg in Motion.  It's what many other projects
building on FFmpeg do, at the very least all the players, i.e. MPlayer,
xine, vlc, avifile, tcvp.

> A last advice.
> You should look at the Motion TWiki site. Making that was the best thing I 
> ever did for the project Motion. And it enables putting the burden of 
> maintaining API docs and users docs on many people incl users.

Noted.

Diego