[FFmpeg-user] Rewriting 'fieldmatch' using the State Machine Method

[Mark Filipak]

On 11/06/2025 12.15, Carl Zwanzig wrote:
> On 6/10/2025 6:45 PM, Mark Filipak wrote:
>> Now, you can discount what I write, but you can't discount that you code by trial and error. It's 
>> up to you.
> 
> Everyone "codes" by trial and error and a part of that process is also known as "debugging" - almost 
> nothing more complicated than "Hello world" fully works correctly the first time, if it does that's 
> a happy accident. It also often means the programmer has overlooked something.

I'm willing to make a big commitment. I will rewrite 'fieldmatch' but I will need help with 'C'. 
I've programmed in 14 languages. Most were assembly. None was 'C'.

Of course I know the syntax. I may not need much help. I have two, thick 'C' primers but they gloss 
over exactly the topics I can't figure out. Almost all my friends in California were 'C' codesmiths. 
I would ask them straightforward questions, "What does this arrow mean?" They said, "That's a 
pointer." They thought I should know what that means -- no explanation. They'd say, "You program in 
assembly, you know base register and indexing. That's what the arrow means." Huh? Of course I know 
base register and indexing. What's that got to do with an arrow? No explanation.

My friends, my books, no examples. I gave up.

If anyone wants to help with the 'C', I will develop all 116 cases and do the coding myself. Believe 
me, it will be an eye opening experience for both of us. I wrote that the codesmiths who worked for 
me said they'd never seen that type of software architecture, state machine architecture. I didn't 
lie. I wrote that they were amazed. I didn't lie.

The point I was trying to make regarding hardware is that hardware must be provably correct -- you 
can't rework hardware once a $million has been spent fabbing a chip. The principles can be applied 
to software. I know that because my 'C' codesmiths did it.

--Mark.