[MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] A basic Win32 compilation help file

[Alexander Strasser]

Hi Ingo,

Ingo Brückl wrote:
> Is this worth committing? It might at least help the unexperienced Windows
> user to get a clue how to start.

  Really not sure :( I guess the clueless user wouldn't find it to begin with.
Additionally it is duplicating stuff documented somewhere else which means
it needs to be synchronized timely or it will be misleading instead of helpful.

  One could argue that it could be hinted from the README in the top-level
source directory that this file exists. But I am not so fond of that idea...

  Did you check the XML docs, is something similar already there that could
be extended or could it be added as a new chapter/section/sub section?

  Non the less some remarks about the text follow:

> Index: DOCS/tech/win32compile.txt
> ===================================================================
> --- DOCS/tech/win32compile.txt	(revision 0)
> +++ DOCS/tech/win32compile.txt	(revision 0)
> @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@
> +Get and install either MinGW and MSYS, or Cygwin.
> +
> +Get a MPlayer SVN checkout (and - in case you don't have git available -
> +a FFmpeg snapshot which you extract under the name ffmpeg into the MPlayer

  IMHO: "an MPlayer", "an FFmpeg"

> +source directory).
> +
> +Start MSYS or Cygwin and in the shell that opens, change to the MPlayer
> +source directory.
> +
> +Configure with
> +
> +  ./configure
> +
> +if you're ok with the command line version, or
> +
> +  ./configure --enable-gui
> +
> +if you want a graphical user interface.
> +
> +You will be told if anything is missing with your MinGW/MSYS or Cygwin and

> +need to be installed first, like libpng for the GUI build, for example.

  Either I am out of sync with the current state of the MPlayer sources or this
text is.

> +
> +Then run make.

  Also I think if you commit such a short compilation manual, you should note
that it is quite possible that a build succeeds but the resulting mplayer/mencoder
binaries might be very limited and missing lots of useful features.

  Alexander