[MPlayer-cvslog] CVS: main/DOCS/tech codecs.conf.txt,1.5,1.6

[Diego Biurrun]

The Wanderer writes:
> Oops. I didn't get to this in time before application... usually there's
> more of a delay than that, so I thought I'd have a bit more time. ^_^

Hey, I pride myself on reacting quickly to patches ;-)

> Diego Biurrun CVS wrote:
> 
> >  users to access, or in the .mplayer directory in a user's home
> >  directory. When MPlayer starts, it first looks for a codecs.conf file in a
> >  user's home directory. Failing that, it searches for the shared file. If
> 
> ...is this even correct? According to my understanding, which does not
> seem to be readily contradicted by a quick glance at the source code,
> MPlayer does not look for ~/codecs.conf but for ~/.mplayer/codecs.conf;
> that does not seem to be what this says.

The wording is ambiguous, MPlayer looks in ~/.mplayer/codecs.conf.

> > -it can't find a codecs.conf file, MPlayer will refuse to run.
> > +the file has syntax errors, MPlayer will not start and report the error.
> 
> I might suggest something like "If the file is not present, MPlayer will
> use its internal version. If the file is present but has syntax
> errors,", etc.

Yes, good point, the document is from before the time when MPlayer
included an internal codecs.conf file.

> > -The "out" keyword identifies which output format that the decoder is known
> > +The "out" keyword identifies which output format the decoder is known
> >  to output.
> 
> Repetition. Suggest "is known to provide".

OK

> >  The "format" keyword performs a similar job as the fourcc line. However,
> >  since certain media file formats (notably AVI) identify audio formats with
> >  16-bit numbers rather than 32-bit FOURCCs, it's necessary to use this
> > -convention to accomodate them. However, as shown in this example, FOURCCs
> > +convention to accommodate them. However, as shown in this example, FOURCCs
> >  can also be specified with the format keyword as long as they're converted
> >  to their hex representation. It's important to note that this can be
> >  useful for video codecs as well if a FOURCC contains a space (such as
> >  Apple's "rle " codec).
> 
> Everywhere else in this patch that I've noticed, "fourcc" has been
> entirely lowercase. Here, it's all caps. I'm not sure I like either of
> these, and I'm not sure that any of the obvious alternatives is better,
> but at the very least we should standardize on one form.

It depends on whether you are talking about "four character codes" in
general or about the fourcc keyword as used in the codecs.conf file.
The latter needs to be lowercase.

Diego