[FFmpeg-devel] What is FFmpeg and what should it be

[Cosmin Stejerean]

> On Aug 2, 2023, at 7:30 AM, Nicolas George <george at nsup.org> wrote:
> 
> Michael Niedermayer (12023-08-02):
>> The libraries should be split into runtime loadable plugins
>> Not only would that make tools alot smaller it also would allow
>> development of code available in ffmpeg that is maintained outside
>> FFmpeg.
>> 
>> I suggested this previosuly, it is of course not a "simple" thing
>> to do.
> 
> No, it would be a terrible mistake.
> 
> And mostly, people who suggest or demand that do it based on
> misconceptions about how linking works and/or have no actual scenario
> where that would help.
> 
> But this is another discussion entirely.

This indeed feels like a separate discussion, but should we want to have that discussion I'd be happy to both provide some use cases as well as contribute code to facilitate the implementation. 

My understanding however is that the community is opposed to dynamically loaded plugins on principle, because it would make it easier to distribute proprietary plugins and sidestep the intent of the copyleft licensing.

- Cosmin