[MPlayer-users] playlist file syntax

[James Gatt]

Quoting D Richard Felker III <dalias at aerifal.cx>:

> On Tue, Dec 07, 2004 at 06:20:39PM -0800, Jessica Johnson wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >
> > The docs say that the playlist format is one file per line. So it doesn't
> > seem to be possible to make a playlist file that includes a playtree.
> > (Correct me if I'm wrong here.)  It would be useful to be able to specify,
> > say
> >
> > { "song1.mp3" "song2.mp3" }
> > { "song3.mp3" }
> >
> > in a playlist file.
> >
> > I've been thinking of modifying the source to expand the accepted syntax of
> > a playlist file.  Is this something other people would be interested in?
> > Any core developers want to comment on the likelihood of this patch being
> > accepted?
>
> it won't be accepted, because it makes it impossible to play a
> playlist with a file named '{ "song1.mp3" "song2.mp3" }' in it!

How is that useful? Do you know anyone who puts double quotes in filenames? I
know you *can*, but... After all, is there a way to put filenames containing
linefeeds into playlists? If not then there are already restrictions in the
filenames allowed by the playlist format over and above those of the file
system.

> there'd at least have to be an alternate format that you specify
> somehow.
>
> btw how is this useful? the only point of playtree is for assigning
> options to groups of files, right? otherwise a playlist is just as
> good...

Particularly looping. It would be good to be able to specify options like
looping in playlists as well. Right now the playlist support is so basic that I
don't think it offers anything more than can be achieved using a shell script
and just calling mplayer for each file to be played. To this end is it really
worth defending the current playlist format against features offered by
non-core members?

I am having this rant because I've seen a lot of derogatory comments made to
people asking innocent and often valid questions on this list. It is foolish
for the core mplayer team to believe that everyone else is incapable of coming
up with useful ideas and writing good code for them. If it is made too hard for
people to submit patches that are accepted, then mplayer development will simply
fork.

I have some patches that fix issues and crashes I have come across in mplayer. I
have not submitted them because I feel in the current climate they might not be
welcome. This doesn't hurt *me*, as my version of mplayer no longer suffers
from these problems, but it hurts all other mplayer users who suffer from these
problems and don't know how to fix them - unless / until someone else fixes them
and submits a patch that will be accepted. Until the attitude on the mplayer
lists changes a *lot* to the better and more welcoming, this will not change.

(This is not aimed at any one person by the way - It's certainly not aimed
directly to Mr. Felker's post to which I have responded.)

Regards,
James.