[MPlayer-DOCS] [PATCH] updated desciption of XviD

[The Wanderer]

Guillaume POIRIER wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On 6/10/05, The Wanderer <inverseparadox at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
>> Just my two cents...
> 
> [..]
> 
> I saw your mail too late to incorporate your comments on the previous
> patch, so here is the final one before I get myself tanned. :-)

A fairly good things, since the previous updated version of the patch
still used "with" instead of "which". However:

> -<ulink url="http://www.xvid.org">XviD</ulink> is a forked development of the
> -OpenDivX codec. It happened when ProjectMayo changed OpenDivX to closed source
> +<ulink url="http://www.xvid.org">XviD</ulink> is an open-source MPEG-4 ASP
> +compliant video codec which, features two-pass encoding and full MPEG-4 ASP

Two points. One, lthough I favour the hyphenated form ("open-source"),
the standard for MPlayer's documentation seems to be the non-hyphenated
form, and as I indicated it would probably be better to leave the hyphen
out as a result. Two, the comma you've added after "which" should in
fact appear before it instead.

> +<title>Installing <systemitem class="library">XviD</systemitem></title>
>  <para>
> -  It is currently available only from CVS. Here are download and installation
> -  instructions (you need at least autoconf 2.50, automake and libtool):
> +  Like most Open Source softwares, it is available in two flavors:
> +  <ulink url="http://www.xvid.org/downloads.html">official releases</ulink>
> +  and CVS version.

Again capitalization w.r.t. "open source".

There is a pluralization inconsistency between "releases" and "version"
at the end of the sentence. The simplest improvement, which is not
necessarily an actual fix, would be to say "the CVS version" instead;
I'm not at all sure why that's better, but it does feel so to me.

> +  CVS version is usually stable enough to use it, as most of times it
> +  features fixes for bugs that exists in releases.

Again, "the CVS version" is required here. I'd also probably say "stable
enough for use", and would definitely say "most of the time".

Although this is formally correct, it took me a moment to parse the fact
that "features" and "fixes" were not both nouns; if you can come up with
an alternate way to phrase this with respect to the verb, it might be
desirable.

> +  Here are download and installation instructions to make
> +  <systemitem class="library">XviD</systemitem> CVS work
> +  with <application>MEncoder</application> (you need at least autoconf 2.50,
> +  automake and libtool):
>  </para>
>  <step><para>
>    <screen>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous at cvs.xvid.org:/xvid login</screen>

This does not provide an actual "instruction" as to how to do the thing
described; it just gives the command which would be used. To qualify as
actua instructions, you would need at least to say something like "run
the following commands" or "here is what to do to make XviD work with
MEncoder".

-- 
       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.