[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH 5/8] lavu: add a JSON writer API (WIP)

[Michael Niedermayer]

On Sat, Apr 29, 2023 at 08:27:32PM +0200, Anton Khirnov wrote:
> Quoting Nicolas George (2023-04-29 19:11:52)
> > Anton Khirnov (2023-04-29):
> > > As far as I can see, there are exactly two places in the codebase that
> > > produce JSON: af_loudnorm and ffprobe.
> > 
> > I think I remember finding a few other places, but it does not matter
> > much.
> > 
> > Users have been asking¹ for parse-friendly output from filters for years,
> > and JSON is often the format they prefer. Therefore, all the filters
> > that log useful information are candidates where a JSON writing API is
> > useful.
> 
> libavfilter is a C library with a C API. Any structured output from
> filters should be in the form of a C object, typically a struct. I do
> not see why are you so in love with strings, they make for terrible
> APIs.

There are many projects which use libavcodec, format, filter
Human users use these projects

If the standarization is at a C struct level only then the human interface
for each application can be different.
Thats fine if the 2 cases use fundamentally different interfaces like a
GUI draging, droping and connecting components vs some command line
interface.
But if 2 applications both use command line / string based interfaces
it would be nice to the human user if she could use/learn the same syntax
and transfer a working example / script from one to the other.

So i think strings do matter for C libs because of that.

thx

[...]
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Michael     GnuPG fingerprint: 9FF2128B147EF6730BADF133611EC787040B0FAB

The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped 
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you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership. - Colin Powell
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