[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] Setting TV channels (not stepping)

Herman Tamas hermantom at dunasoft.com
Fri Dec 20 05:49:08 CET 2002


hi,

nice 2 hear u talkin 2 me, A'rpi master ;) 
(probably i made u nervous again :/ sorry, it wasnt intended)

> why don't you tell us that we should use the windows registry to store all
> configs, code, etc... ? :)
:) because im talking about a much more simple construct

> hey, it's unix philosophy... use teh best & opimal configfile format for
> every module. putting everything to a single file isn't too useful.
no single file was mentioned. just a single language. & that would b more
optimal than writing separate parsers&interpreters all the time. u just
extend that language & develop words what make the representation of the
solution much more easier & comprehendable. thus config files r never more
gonna b simple data files; they gonna b programs, they gonna b able 2 run..
how? & why is it good? probably u may ask me these questions.

how: a small, some thousand bytes long, unified, unbeliveably simple
algorithm does the parsing AND compiling OR *interpreting(~=executing)*
(~130lines of C code). the compiled code gets executed by an ~100lines
long C routine what repeats ~10lines of code out of these ~100 ones in most
of the time. (btw these values refer 2 the source of a multitasking
compiler/executor system, so they can b even less if u want a single task
only environment...)

why is it good: isnt it still obvious?
- lot of development tasks wouldnt require the recompilation of mplayer
- it eases the extension of the system w furhter 
- the possibility of an interactive, incremental development would
  - speed up development a lot by
    - allowing immediate testing thus the produced code almost never
      can contain errors (of course the algorithm can have ones...)
    - almost eliminating (tho allowin) the need of debugging (see above)

what is not obvious but iknow & i can prove it if u want (i bet u dont ;)
- the simple language "structure" (almost 0 syntax)
  - allows creating of a much smaller source code (@least half size of C)
    what highly eases the
    - perception
    - reading (after some training 4 the <~1 specific lang> minded ppl ;)
    - seeing through
    - understanding
    - navigation
    of the code.
  - avoids the ability of making syntactical mistakes
  - reduces the maintainence efforts (thats 4 u A'rpi ;)
  - encourages & helps higher factorization (~= modularization)
  - could give birth 2 a commonly understandable "mplayer lang"
    what can b used even on irc 2 communicate even live/working code
    snippets just as easy & concise as communicating non-code ideas
    using eg. english (no more code flood)

of course u r satisfied w C, i know. just as i was satisfied w me 1st
girlfriend (boyfriend computer whatever ;) i fell in love with...
probably u love 2 b proud of being a developer of a multi-thousand line
software. it gives u a lot of job & satisfaction,fun,joy (<- thats what
really counts ;) but also pain (those bug,lotsa versions,files,lines)...

xmas is coming... & also a new year... its the time of contemplation &
the time for opening new pages in ur life... dont u wanna see & experience
some "new", refreshing & "brutally simple" programming methodology, coding
style, development model & so on? if not, ask yourself: why? why not?
its just a few hundred lines...

but merry xmas preparation 2 all u great obsessed/infatuated/possessed/
fanatic (pick a suitable adjective ;) mplayer developers & lets get prepared
4 a happy new yr!

ps: stay tuned 4 my further real life examples. the new year gonna
    deliver them (ihope so @least)

  yours sincerly,
    tom, "the crazy advocate"



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