[Libav-user] Would anyone find an OS X / Cocoa / Swift wrapper for Libav useful?

[Joshua Kordani]

On 1/22/15 9:02 PM, Bradley O'Hearne wrote:
> All,
>
> I’ve been on the Libav-user mailing list 2-3 years now, having worked on FFmpeg integration for various clients. While I develop on Windows and Linux platforms, my primary development has been spent over the past 6 years has been on OS X with respect to desktop (my core business is mobile development: iOS, Android, and newly Windows Phone). Over the past two years, my work with FFmpeg has been primarily on the OS X platform.
>
> During that time, I have run into a number of issues about which I’ve appealed to this mailing list, and one of the things which various list members (some of which were, as I understand it, Libav devs) raised was that most (if not all) of the Libav devs did not either use or have access to OS X to be able to speak to or support problems which manifested on OS X, and I strongly suspect platform issues could have influenced some of the problems experienced. In one case, someone even encouraged me to just simply “change platforms”, which of course cannot always be done, especially if you are serving clients who have hired you to make things work on that specific platform.
>
> This is not the best situation, and it is kind of a dubious label for Libav to be declared as working and/or supported on OS X if there are no devs using OS X or supporting it. I have generally found answers to most of the issues I have had to work through, but finding those answers has been slow-going, and a tedious process. My purpose here is to poll the list members to ask if anyone would find any value at all if someone created an OS X / Cocoa / Swift (and possibly iOS) wrapper for Libav?
>
> Perhaps I’m the only one on the planet using Libav on Apple platforms, though I’m betting I’m not (actually I know I’m not, as a few have contacted me off-list). Also, it might take some of the headache away from the Libav devs who don’t use Apple platforms to answer some support questions. For us who like apples, a nice, clean Swift API might be very nice, and save a lot of time and headaches. I might be able to produce such a thing, first somewhat limited and rudimentary, and then mature it over time.
>
> Would anyone be interested in such an API?
>
> Thank you in advance for your replies.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Brad
>
> Brad O'Hearne
> Founder/Lead Developer
> Big Hill Software LLC
>
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>

I can't speak to the cocoa swift stuff, but I use libav on OSX.  I use it with c/c++ code.  Not very coherently mind you, but still.

I've been derided on IRC for trying to work through how the various classes interact, and as far as I'm concerned the sooner I can stop using this user hostile library the better.  I have code that works now, but any changes I make to the project I'll probably end up doing by hand.

I still don't understand the difference between the FFmpeg libraries and the LibAV project, and my comments are mainly directed at the former as the latter community wise has been nicer.  As far as I can see though, the API's are shared or similar and are equally opaque.  Doxygen doesn't count here.


Joshua Kordani
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