[FFmpeg-devel] on the hard state of ffmpeg command line options

[Michael Bradshaw]

On Sun, Oct 28, 2012 at 4:55 PM, Nicolas George
<nicolas.george at normalesup.org> wrote:
> Le septidi 7 brumaire, an CCXXI, Michael Bradshaw a écrit :
>> If I'm not mistaken, I think he's suggesting that new people don't
>> know if it's specifying the input or output format.
>
> "As a general rule, options are applied to the next specified file."
>
> This is the first line of the third small paragraph of the documentation.
>
> On one side, we have people who have spent time learning the general
> principle of the command line and now are using ffmpeg for useful tasks.
>
> On the other side, we have people who do not even bother to read the doc.
>
> And it is suggested to change the syntax, and therefore render void all
> efforts invested in learning it, just to help the second category, without
> even proof that it will actually help (if they do not read the doc now, they
> will not read the doc later either).
>
> I personally do not think it is a worthy endeavour.

I concur. I think what would help new people the most is a massive
overhaul on the site/documentation (to change the
presentation/formatting/layout, not necessarily the content) to make
it more "inviting" and navigable, but that's a whole different subject
that would require more man power than I believe is available.