[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] avcodec/codec_desc: rename smv video codec name to smvjpeg to match decoder name

[wm4]

On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 21:31:26 +0200
Hendrik Leppkes <h.leppkes at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 9:23 PM, wm4 <nfxjfg at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 21:18:13 +0200
> > Hendrik Leppkes <h.leppkes at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 8:33 PM, wm4 <nfxjfg at googlemail.com> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, 16 Jun 2015 13:29:55 +0000
> >> > Paul B Mahol <onemda at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >> Also fixes clash with smv audio codec.
> >> >>
> >> >> Signed-off-by: Paul B Mahol <onemda at gmail.com>
> >> >> ---
> >> >>  libavcodec/codec_desc.c | 2 +-
> >> >>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> >> >>
> >> >> diff --git a/libavcodec/codec_desc.c b/libavcodec/codec_desc.c
> >> >> index c1694f3..f32843a 100644
> >> >> --- a/libavcodec/codec_desc.c
> >> >> +++ b/libavcodec/codec_desc.c
> >> >> @@ -1178,7 +1178,7 @@ static const AVCodecDescriptor codec_descriptors[] = {
> >> >>      {
> >> >>          .id        = AV_CODEC_ID_SMVJPEG,
> >> >>          .type      = AVMEDIA_TYPE_VIDEO,
> >> >> -        .name      = "smv",
> >> >> +        .name      = "smvjpeg",
> >> >>          .long_name = NULL_IF_CONFIG_SMALL("Sigmatel Motion Video"),
> >> >>      },
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > An incompatible API change should come with a major bump.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Strings in the codec descriptor are API now?
> >
> > Of course. Just like AVOptions, filter names, etc.
> >
> > (The patch was pushed anyway. Who needs reviews. Or stable APIs.)
> 
> If you want to go down that route, you could argue that any return
> value from any function is part of the API, and if it changes, it
> needs a major bump.
> .. and that would mean you cannot change anything ever at all.
> 
> I see no reason these strings should be considered API. They are
> descriptive names, not option tokens or anything.
> If you want a reliable static way to identify a codec, use the id.

Using strings for codec IDs is pretty flexible and convenient, and I
don't want to give up on it. But more importantly, these are being used
by many scripts and user interfaces which make use of libavcodec. Can
you imagine the chaos if you renamed the "h264" codec to "avc"? Do you
suppose applications should have their own lookup tables for
AV_CODEC_IDs? They'd have to update it all the time. And it wouldn't
work for scripts using ffmpeg.c (which makes ffmpeg.c an API user
relying on codec strings not changing randomly).