[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] update ad_mpg123 in preparation to replace mp3lib

[Reimar Döffinger]

On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 10:18:37AM +0100, Thomas Orgis wrote:
> Am Wed, 14 Mar 2012 19:26:59 -0400
> schrieb compn <tempn at twmi.rr.com>: 
> 
> > >Nothing prevents those systems from having a system mpg123.
> > 
> > " 1. New installation via GNU autotools "
> > 
> > installing autotools is never fun. or easy.
> > 
> > (i wonder why step 2 is in the INSTALL at all?)
> > and 0. Prerequesites
> > does not list autotools crap at all!
> 
> Well, perhaps I subsumed that under "an (UNIX-like) operating system
> with standard tools". While I do agree that autotools has a lot of "it
> sucks"-points for the developer, it is quite a strong standard for
> users wanting to build things. Even MPlayer's configure && make does
> mimic basic autotools usage, nay?

Very much not.
Autotools
1) Generates unreadable and unfixable code. If you read a bit on
how to use auto-generated code in anything important, the conclusion
is that the code generators are not practically reviewable, and thus
you need the generated code itself to be reviewable. Autotools
completely and thoroughly fails here, making autotools projects
completely unusable on systems that are not officially supported.

2) Concentrates on supporting systems nobody has seen since 20 years
while I don't think the support for unusual but still supported systems
like OS/2 is particularly good.

3) While those are few enough, there are loads more people who can
write make files and shell scripts than those who can actually use
autotools correctly. Thus generally the result of autotools is something
that is not portable (by fault of the person trying to use it) and
not debuggable (due to 1).

> And if you just want to install a mpg123 release (or
> http://mpg123.org/snapshot), you do not need autotools installed. Just
> run configure and make and be happy.

That only fixes (4) no version compatibility and no interest in
providing it properly from autotools side.

> So I take it you are against inclusion of libmpg123 in MPlayer tree to
> avoid autotool contamination?

I'm against it anyway - the point was to get rid of the included mp3lib - but
if would involve autotools my response changes a bit to a more forceful
"no way in hell!".

> > >> before mp3lib is retired:
> > > > [...]
> > >Ugh, no, let's just dump it.
> > 
> > a better idea would be to have a distro dump it, so we can get bug
> > reports without affecting all users.

You can just remove it from codecs.conf (or change it to broken)
if you are that concerned.
But just changing the configure default to disabled should be fine
I guess.