[MPlayer-users] Next rc or 1.0 anyone

[Nan Null]

See comment inline below.



----- Original Message ----
> >> Grabbing an SVN snapshot is far too much of a crapshoot.  The code
> >> is in an unknown state of flux, and very often will not compile for
> >> days on end. 

Absolutely agree on this.

> If you think releases are bad you clearly lack the sense for
> responsibility and the discipline for serious software
> development. This stuff - and especially some basic quality control,
> testing and release management - may be just foolish toying around for
> you, but it could well mean a lot more to others who spend serious
> time, even just as users, on mplayer and possibly carelessly
> introduced, random issues.

Again agree.  Open source doesn't mean chaotic schedule.  It could be MPlayer's way of doing things, 
but it's not because of open source.  You have release branches, stabilizing branch and you have development branch.
Release date can be set, not mark on stone, but set so that all release activities ban be done.  For example, check and track all critical bugs are fixed, check that documents are done.  If something is not fixed, it the feature can be rejected and move to the next release.
Release date also is important, so that the release coordinator can sync up with developers and document writers and who ever involved in the build and binary builds, etc.. to be ready.  Open source does not mean uncoordinated project.

Release milestone also helps guide the developers to have a common goal, and what's important, and what's not.  Because people are volunteers, does not mean they won't follow guidance.  Some may not, and some may, but guidance is still good for people who needs it.

> 
> That said, and it may have escaped you, mplayer is dead anyway, at
> least as an encoding application. Just follow the dev list for a while
> to understand that there's no real team standing behind this being
> focussed on common goals, and especially nobody who would want to make
> the major effort and take that seriously crippled avi centric
> architecture to the next level.

Mplayer is a great piece of software.  I use it and developed a front end to it.  I am afraid that this project is dead, and I don't have a good alternative.  VLC is nice, but just not on par with Mplayer at least as an embedded piece of software.
I hope it keeps going.

> 
> By now, mplayer (or rather mencoder) seems to be just a bunch of hacks
> which had been piling up for years especially to make avi work with
> modern encoding and container formats. Of course, this leads nowhere
> and I guess the point of non maintainability has been reached time
> ago, which at least makes the frustration among devs a little more
> understandable. The lack of proper release management and taking
> contributors into responsibility is - surely to a major part - to
> blame for this situation.

I am not sure what to blame, but a project that lacks of release management (I am not saying MPlayer lacks this) would be a serious problem for most of software projects.


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