[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] Release 6.1

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le torstaina 28. syyskuuta 2023, 18.33.33 EEST Nicolas George a écrit :
> Rémi Denis-Courmont (12023-09-28):
> > Strange, I thought FFmpeg really became popular as a back-end library for
> > mplayer, before it was picked up by all other OSS multimedia at the time
> > (gstreamer, VLC, Xine, etc.).
> 
> Fortunately, I know the history of our projects better than you:
> 
> First, FFmpeg was already a feature-rich self-contained program when
> MPlayer started using it.

Just being feature-rich does not make it popular. I never said anything about 
being or not being feature-rich at that point in time. But congratulations on 
disproving a point that nobody made anyway.

> Second, MPlayer did not start using it FFmpeg as a library, it started —
> and still does in part — using it as embedded code.

Sure and that is in fact one way to use a software library. There is even a 
name for that practice nowadays: vendoring. Thanks for making my point.

> Too bad your attempt at disproving my point just proves it.

Just providing some historical facts (that I don't challenge) does not 
disprove my point. You pretty much confirmed my point actually.

And besides, one example (FFmpeg) does not prove a general rule, such as you 
up-thread postulate that started-as-library software is never popular.

Indeed, anybody who knows open-source in general knows that there are plenty 
of libraries that are popular. In fact, there are far more popular libraries 
than popular applications in terms of user base, and often in terms of 
development activity and community strength. (And I don't count libraries with 
reference command line tools as applications, otherwise everything is an 
application and your implied dichotomy would not make sense to begin with.)

> > Force-feeding the SDR code to all FFmpeg packagers is not going to make it
> > popular. Most of them will just disable it, especially if it brings new
> > dependencies and/or doesn't work on the popular proprietary platforms.
> 
> So, they can “just disable it” and ignore it.

That does not change the fact that it won't make it any popular, and thus your 
postulate is wrong.

> They have no ground to oppose, and neither do you.

I neither needed nor sought new ground here. I just disprove your postulate, 
not that I expect you to be able to grasp the possibility of such occurrence, 
in light of your past and present show of self-assurance (to put it politely).

> > FWIW, Fabrice Bellard didn't bundle all his initially hobby projects
> > together. Several of them became popular.
> 
> He bundled together the things that fit nicely together.
> Once again an argument in favor of SDR integration.

It should be blatantly obvious to anybody with a modicum of modesty that "fit 
nicely together" is intrinsically a very subjective value judgement, not a 
technical argument in favor or disfavor of anything.

-- 
レミ・デニ-クールモン
http://www.remlab.net/