README (was:Re: Re: [MPlayer-dev-eng] life after the 0.90 release...)

[Diego Biurrun]

Arpi writes:
 > 
 > i tried to follow your patches, but after soem time, there are too many
 > threads and you send new versions of the same pacthes attached to every
 > mail, so really hard to find which one is the final one...

Yes, probably difficult to follow..

 > could you collect them, and send them to me (or to the list) attached?
 > 
 > i'll apply them.

OK, I'll send them to you in private, no need to duplicate them here.

 > about this readme stuff - i still feel too many problems wiht it, so i'll
 > probably try to reorganize it to be accepted by me :)

If I understand you correctly you want it to be a complete
installation manual, right?  I had not planned it to be one, but it is
ending up there right now.

 > imho, the ordre of things should be:
 > 
 > 1. if cvs version, get libavcodec, for mpeg4/divx support

Currently the CVS snapshots do not include libavcodec.  Can't we
modify the scripts that create them to include libavcodec?  This would
simplify things a great deal, then we can skip this step and add a CVS
section that also explains how to get libavcodec and you only have to
do this once.

 > 2. install win32 codecs. recommended, the native codecs only support a few,
 > common formats like divx and mpeg, for old formats, for rare formats, for
 > very new formats (like wmv) for faster decoding of some formats (cvid...) it
 > is required

OK, so this should be recommended

 > 3. run ./configure, or with gui run ./configure --enable-gui
 >   check its output, install -dev packages if needed (no x11 detected etc)
 >   and re-run ./configure until you're statisfied with the results
 >   if you're unsure about video/audio drivers, refer html docs video/sound
 >   section and find what is needed/recommended for your video/sound card

Agreed, this section should be expanded to include some more hints.

 > 4. run make, and make install as root
 > 5. if you want subtitles or osd, install font package to common or user's
 >   ~/.mplayer dir
 > 6. if you enabled gui, downlaod skin(s) and install them ...
 > 7. you've done. try it, if something doesn't work, then rtfm. you may ask
 >    help at mail lists, but it's recommended to read docs/bugreprts and supply
 >    the required infos described there...

I'll try to come up with a modified README that satisfies these
criteria, but not today, ok?

Diego