[MPlayer-users] playlist file syntax

[James Gatt]

D Richard Felker III wrote:

>On Wed, Dec 08, 2004 at 01:04:36PM +0000, James Gatt wrote:
>  
>
>>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
>>    
>>
>
>YES, I DO!!! IF IT'S PART OF THE NAME OF THE SONG!!
>pretty much anyone who names their mp3s with the full titles rather
>than just short_name.mp3 runs into this problem.
>  
>

1. I didn't think mplayer was intended to be used as an mp3 player - 
there are much better programs around for doing this, even the mplayer 
documentation suggests this somewhere.

2. "pretty much anyone" is a grossly inaccurate generalisation. Most 
people either use Windows or like to keep their filenames sane so they 
can be used on Windows. They use two ' characters instead, which in most 
proportional fonts looks identical to ".

>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>putting linefeeds in filenames is idiotic. putting natural characters
>like " and { and } is not. i want to be able to generate a basic
>playlist from the output of the "ls" command without needing to do all
>kinds of additional processing to escape characters...
>  
>

Putting double quote characters in filenames is every bit as idiotic as 
linefeeds - I have not yet seen a shell script written to tolerate 
either, as both are simply bad practice.

>>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?
>>    
>>
>
>yes! people use it and don't want it broken for the sake of some silly
>obscure feature. i use "mplayer -shuffle -playlist foo.list" all the
>time, and i expect many others do too.
>  
>

I generally use mplayer for playing movies, as I expect most other users 
of mplayer do also. It is what it does best. Playlists feature little in 
this mode of operation.

>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>go right ahead. no one is stopping you. :))
>  
>

The thing that is stopping me right now is that I know it is not always 
the best thing for a project to have separate development streams - 
neither one gets all the features or all the bugs fixed.

>>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.
>>    
>>
>
>Please, do submit these. I can't promise they'll be accepted, if the
>fixes have bad side effects or are poorly written, but someone will at
>least read them and maybe write a different fix if they don't like
>yours.
>  
>

I do have trouble with the phrase "poorly written". I have *seen* the 
code that's there remember.

src/mplayer $ grep -i hack `find . -name \*[.][ch]` | wc -l
165

Regards,
James.