[MPlayer-users] two cents: why dvdnav is needed (why mplayer will die from this)

[D Richard Felker III]

On Mon, Mar 03, 2003 at 03:08:18AM -0600, Daniel Hauck wrote:
> [Automatic answer: RTFM (read DOCS, FAQ), also read DOCS/bugreports.html]
> I've been watching this list for a bit and I am observing why mplayer
> will die the way so many other decent projects do.
> 
> Quite a few years ago, before Windows was the only way to do things and
> all the best games were in DOS, I knew this one guy who once told me,
> "...I'll never use Windows!  It's just a fancy menu system and who needs
> that?"  DOS is dead along with just about every program which was
> exclusive to it.
> 
> I posed a question about enhancing the abilities of the "gmplayer" and I
> received similar responses the gentleman I reference below.  Such
> responses as "code it yourself" "it's too trivial" and "it's not needed
> [enough]"  
> 
> It's good that Linus Torvalds could see that while there are many
> "trivial" inclusions into the Linux kernel, they are present to fill
> various needs and uses.  Some of these things were even removed
> eventually but were at least given a chance to grow.  So now Linux
> supports a huge range of things such as obscure file-systems and
> executable binary formats that allow Linux to be useful not only in a
> majority sense, but in a minority one as well.
> 
> "Code it yourself" isn't always an option.  That's like telling someone
> to build his own car if he needs something changed in the car he drives
> now.  Its not much of a stretch of the imagination to see why DVDNAV is
> needed.  Sometimes it's the only way to make some things happen. 
> Another person mentioned a desire to have mplayer blank the screen and
> pause for a key-press between clips.  (Clearly he wants to use it as
> part of a presentation of some sort) While I think this is a very
> trivial addition, I can see where it might be a good thing to have even
> though I, personally, do not foresee myself ever using such an option. 
> Asking that "gmplayer" remove some of its annoyances such as the huge
> logo display, remembering its location on the screen, remembering the
> magnification setting and forgetting its play-list and a host of other
> functions that make it more useful in a GUI oriented file-browsing sense
> doesn't seem unreasonable or non-productive. (Looping is a nice option
> too...)
> 
> We're not all Henry Ford.  We want cars of many colors and styles --
> that's why there are so many of them.  The "engineer-friendly" style
> isn't the only and certainly isn't the best approach to a project that
> virtually demands that a graphics-delivering application utilize common
> graphical interface standards and uses.  The "engineer-elite" mentality
> here doesn't serve to help this project grow, but hinders it by limiting
> the user and interest base.  
> 
> While the true owners of the project are the actual coders and the users
> are mere leeches, the input of users should be respected without grudge
> or malice as soon enough another project (probably commercial) will
> answer the call of the end user thereby proving that open source doesn't
> serve the community at large [read "main-stream"] and remains the tool
> of the "elite hobbyist" and never taken seriously.

This post reflects such a great degree of ignorance and outright
stupidity that it does not even deserve individual responses to its
points.

Rich