[FFmpeg-devel] [OT] Re: libossupport status

[François Revol]

> > OSs as well as applications should support standards (POSIX / ISO 
> > C)
> > its a matter of O(n) vs. O(n^2)
> > 
> > porting 100 OSs and 100 applications to POSIX is 100+100=200 things 
> > to port
> > porting 100 apps to 100 OSs is 100*100=10000 things to port
> > 
> > also very few of the 100 apps will be ported to obscure OSs
> > its very simple: fix your OS to support POSIX or watch with your 
> > own
> > eyes how evolution works
> 
> How many people around here have actually seen BeOS in action?  I 
> have
> never used it, but i have at least seen it 10 years or so ago.  OSes
> only get used if there are applications available for them.  Now if 
> all
> BeOS devs just try porting applications to BeOS instead of the other 
> way
> around it is only a small wonder that BeOS disappeared into 
> obscurity...

While true it's not the only reason. It's also because Be focus-
shifted, and ...<insert usual monopoly story />
BeOS does have apps.
I myself ported XEmacs, PearPC, BZflag, ffmpeg, links...
and maintained stuff like SANE, samba, ...
We have firefox, BePdf (an xpdf-based reader), ...
The most important reason isn't POSIX or not, it's about the GUI.
Most command lines apps are easily ported and maintained (several I 
ported actually compiled hands off with less than 5 warnings), ffmpeg 
being the one that requires the most maintainance, go figure why :^).
GUI apps OTH require a specific backend because BeOS doesn't use X11 
nor has a recent cross-platform toolkit like Qt or GTK+ (old unfinished 
port).
I actually started porting some toolkits (wx,...).
I rather have a clean native GUI though.
SDL games however are quite common.

Again, for POSIX-only stuff BeOS usually doesn't require much hacking, 
and Haiku increases the compatibility.

Fran?ois.