[MPlayer-dev-eng] combining codec packages

[Diego Biurrun]

compn writes:
> 
> i think its a good idea to have less packages (less confusing)
> it would be good to have one package and then just a directory
> of single files if people just want one codec (usually how it works)
> 
> so ALLcodecs-20040101.tar.bz2
> and /allcodecs-dir/ with all codecs (not compressed)
> 
> so if someone just wants quicktime without 9mb they can
> and if someone wants macosx real codecs they can. etc.

I'm very fond of the idea of having an essential codecs package that
provides the codecs for which no native support is available yet and
is shrinking over time, hopefully to nothing some day.  This way you
only have to taint your nice free system with the absolute minimum of
binary crapware necessary to play all types of content.

We only advertise the essential package on the dload page anyway, the
rest is for advanced users and comes with some explanation.  I don't
see much confusion coming from there.  I hope it's all clear now with
the README files in each codec package and the updated docs that do
not talk about packages that don't exist anymore.

Maybe we could reduce the number of packages advertised on the codecs
page, though.  Currently we have

essential
all
Windows essential
Windows all
QuickTime 6.3
RealPlayer 9
RealPlayer 9 Win32
RealPlayer 9 Mac OS X
RealPlayer 8 Alpha
RealPlayer 8 PPC
XAnim
XAnim PPC

this could probably be reduced to

essential
all
Windows essential
Windows all
RealPlayer 9 Mac OS X
RealPlayer 8 Alpha
RP8 + XAnim PPC

Or maybe even further, I don't know if we really need the separate
Windows packages.  The only difference that I am aware of is using the
Real .so or DLL.

Diego