[FFmpeg-devel] [PATCH] MAINTAINERS: Add more fields based on the linux kernel MAINTAINERs

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

Le 15 août 2024 23:49:03 GMT+03:00, Michael Niedermayer <michael at niedermayer.cc> a écrit :
(...)
>So here we established the fact that FFmpeg definitly reached the size
>at which the kernel had "subsystems" even though the word occured only
>once in MAINTAINER in 2.1

I think this is more a question of code size and code churn, and I don't see any data to support that FFmpeg has reached (or not) the point that its development should be split into subsystems.

(...)
>Just think of it this way maybe, If you take 100 skilled artists and let
>each work on their own you will get 100 art pieces many will be impressive.
>OTOH if you put these 100 artists in the same group you will get one art piece
>and many artists who want to leave.
>Do you see maybe the relation to FFmpeg and people leaving ?

Bluntly, no.

I believe that the main reasons why people leave are:
1) Hobbyists finished, or got bored with, whatever they were fiddling with, and moved on to something else.
2) Professionals were compensated to work on FFmpeg and no longer are, due to project completion, change of business direction, or change of job.
3) As the project has matured, the "easy" parts are already implemented (multimedia as a whole is a mature field now), the learning curve is ever steeper, the coding standards and constraints are ever more taxing, etc. This discourages old hobbyists and prospective new members alike.
4) The community is particularly toxic by contemporary standards (IMO, due to CC inaction).

The first 3 points are mostly out of our hands. And none of those 4 points are addressed by splitting up the development process into subsystems.