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

[Sascha Sommer]

Hi,

On Sunday 07 August 2005 12:59, Dave Airlie wrote:
> > I think then you really didn't get how Fmpeg and MPlayer development
> > works. All CVS snapshots are supposed to be in that state, and at
> > least 90% of the time they actually are.
> > It really looks to me like you didn't really try to find a solution to
> > your problem yourself and instead expect the people here to implement
> > your ideas.
>
> I don't really have a major issue, I've forked my codebase internally
> for a project a long time ago, its just to think about doing a resync
> it would be nice to have a clue when the project is in the 10% phase
> and when the project is in the 90% phase and again I say the only
> people who actually know this are the developers, I can lurk on lists
> and CVS commits all I want but I don't have an in-depth knowledge to
> know what changes might be stabilising and what ones might be
> destabilising.. my thoughts are that if developers could maybe expend
> a little extra work to say, well we think this should be stable, lets
> give it a number, it would maybe save other developers on other
> projects all wasting a large amount of time figuring it our for
> themselves...  I don't expect anyone to implement anything, I'm just
> trying to figure out why the project is very anti- it, unlike most
> others I've work on...
>

As far as I understand FFmpeg and MPlayer development, cvs of these project is 
always supposed to be stable. Changes that break certain features should not 
go into cvs and if you notice some bug when you update your snapshot you 
should check the mailinglist archive if this is already known and report it 
otherwise. Then wait a few days until it is fixed and use the fixed snapshot.
The 10% phase is only when one of the developers makes a mistake that noone 
noticed so far. If there were releases it would be very likely that the 
releases contain these bugs, too.

In my eyes, Michael, besides being briliant coder, has done a wonderful job in 
maintaing this project so far. If someone does not like the release policy 
then go ahead improve the shared lib support, propose a better abi or  
volunteer in doing the releases. Complaining and waiting for more "grown up 
developers" won't help anything.  

Sascha