[Ffmpeg-devel] [PATCH] MS-GSM support: draft for review

[Michel Bardiaux]

Diego Biurrun wrote:
> On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 10:29:05AM +0100, Michel Bardiaux wrote:
>> Diego Biurrun wrote:
>>> On Mon, Nov 06, 2006 at 06:13:37PM +0100, Michel Bardiaux wrote:
>>>> This is not the way I see collaboration to an open-source project. When 
>>>> someone has something that works (in a domain where things didnt work or 
>>>> were not implemented before), you may reject code that is *grossly* 
>>>> wrong or bloated or slow; not because you find the style not one-liney 
>>>> enough, or complicated enough, or obfuscated enough.
>>> I disagree.  Why disregard quality standards just because it is new?  If
>>> somebody appeared tomorrow with - say - a complete decoder for RealVideo
>>> 3.0 and 4.0 do we have to commit it immediately even though it's full of
>>> buffer overflows?  Hardly ...
>> I wrote "wrong or bloated or slow". So your counterexample is not 
>> appropriate.
> 
> I read and understood what you wrote, I just don't agree with it.  Let
> me put it another way: This project has strict quality guidelines.  

And a large backlog of bad code. See the thread on audio bitrates... How 
is one supposed to know how to write new code if the existing one is not 
a reliable example but not commented as sucky?

> They
> are sacrificed neither for complete new decoders nor for MS-GSM support.
> 
>>>> With 30 years of experience under my belt, I would not tolerate that 
>>>> attitude from my head of department, and I dont think I have to accept 
>>>> it from you.
>>> Now calm down, no need to work up a temper :)
>>>
>>> Michael *is* the head of department around here 
>> Simple question: why? I gladly recognize his expertise where fast 
>> multimedia code is concerned, but his criteria about code quality are 
>> definitely not the same as mine.
> 
> Because he is the person that has the most expertise, commits, reviews,
> experience, time on this project (call it years of experience under his
> belt if you wish) ...  Plus, I don't see anybody willing and able to
> replace him.

The bane of all non-profit activities. The one who has the most time (or 
access to the most manpower, like RedHat!) has the power.

> 
>>> and while he is strict,
>>> he is so with everybody and he always has good technical reasons for
>>> being so.  Just split your patch into independent parts and it will be
>>> applied in no time...
>> Apparently not, Michael has junked *all* of it, and demanded an 
>> implementation based on AVParser, mostly for reasons of Microsoft-bashing.
> 
> Get over it, this is not personal.

Sometimes, I wonder. Then I shake myself, "Michel, stop it, you're 
paranoid". Then my inner self wakes up and shouts, "He, *of course* I'm 
paranoid, after all, everybody hates me!"

> 
> Diego


-- 
Michel Bardiaux
R&D Director
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