[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] The meaning of AVERROR_NOTSUPP

[Mike Scheutzow]

Howard Chu wrote:
> Stefano Sabatini wrote:
>
>> I reckon that the term AVERROR_INVALIDOPERATION may appear quite
>> unflexible and not future proof, but at least it has a semantics which
>> is orthogonal with respect to that of AVERROR_PATCHWELCOME. If a
>> non-implementable feature becomes implementable due to a format
>> extension, then the code can be changed to AVERROR_PATCHWELCOME.
>
> IMO drawing these distinctions is not useful. When an end-user sees 
> these any of these messages, 98% of the time the results are all 
> effectively the same - the software you have in front of you can't do 
> what you asked it to do, tough luck. If you're actually a programmer, 
> and in a position to investigate the code, you will do so, regardless 
> of which of these error messages shows up.
I agree with Stefano: for developers, there is a large difference 
between INVALIDOPERATION and PATCHWELCOME. When making changes to the 
code, it is helpful to me for the code to document the difference.

-- 
Mike Scheutzow