[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] New build system

[Nicolas George]

Josh de Kock (2018-06-14):
> As such, I'd like to propose adopting a new build system to FFmpeg, namely
> Meson[1].

I am very strongly against this.

I loathe make and all it has to do with it, but really, for a project
like this, it is the only viable option. The principles of make are
already known by almost all potential Libre software developers, those
in the project and those not yet.

Make is also a very mature system, with many interoperable
implementations; and although FFmpeg relies on a lot of extensions that
are specific to GNU make, these extensions themselves are very mature
and I think implemented in a few other versions. It is completely
different from using a very young project that has only a single
implementation and that still evolves so much that you did not manage to
use a released version.

Add to that that this Meson comes from the GNOME / freedesktop crowd,
who is not known for its attachment to durability and API stability.
From where I stand, Meson is the new autotools; maybe in ten years we
will be able to observe that it was really a progress compared to
autotools. But in the meantime, there are reasons for FFmpeg to have
avoided autotools like plague, and they apply to Meson the same.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George
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