[MPlayer-cvslog] CVS: main configure,1.1029,1.1030

[The Wanderer]

Jan Knutar wrote:

> On Thursday 21 July 2005 22:40, The Wanderer wrote:

>>> That is not my position. Autodetection is fine as default. It
>>> should however still be possible to disable components without
>>> having to uninstall them before compiling mplayer.
>> 
>> And it is (the --disable-foo options). What I inferred from your
>> statement, however, was that "MPlayer should not automatically
>> bloat itself up as much as possible",
> 
> Ah sorry, that is not what I meant.

Acknowledged. I think I've figured out what you meant and how it led you
to that phrasing; it was more than a little confusing, but I believe we
have it sorted out now.

>> and in the current context that appears to mean "MPlayer should not
>> automatically compile in things without asking" - which means
>> "autodetection should not be default". If I'm misreading you, I'd
>> love to know how.
> 
> I find the current behaviour of automatically compiling in whatever
> configure finds available quite good. It simplifies things greatly
> for newcomers, but I have seen people asking "what do I need to
> --enable for blah" where blah is something like xvid, divx,
> optimizing, etc. Renaming these options into --force, would perhaps
> clear that misunderstanding amongst certain user groups, that they
> need to --enable lots of random stuff to get the most out of mplayer
> on their system.

I would much rather address this with an explanatory note somewhere
(perhaps in the output of 'configure --help'), at least until such time
as that proves to be ineffective; I like the use of "enable" much more
than I do "force", and while I wouldn't be inherently opposed to the
change on this rationale - as I was on previous rationales for much the
same thing - I'd still prefer not to resort to such a change if at all
possible.

> Just because --enable would be removed and renamed into --force, I
> wanted to put in a note to keep --disable still around, in case
> someone wants to build a smaller binary, or prevent libraries that
> are buggy to be linked in (for example libartsc on my system seems to
> install so many exit handlers that don't play nice together with
> mplayer, sdl or anything more complex than a trivial hello world).

Yes, that's the exact purpose of --disable in the first place - still,
it probably doesn't hurt to mention it as a reminder.

> I apologize if I expressed it unclearly and hope this has cleared up
> confusion a bit...

<bows>

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

A government exists to serve its citizens, not to control them.