[MPlayer-users] playlist file syntax

[Carl Karsten]

First, I am going to pour gasoline all over myself and then jump into 
the flames.  why?  I am not sure.  perhaps to make a point.  not sure 
what that point is...

Next, I agree with the spirit of about everything that has been 
presented in this thread.  How can that be?  because both sides are not 
arguing the same point.  "The sky is blue!"  "No, grass is green!"  It 
isn't that absurd, but I think that is what is going on.

Next next, many things are being presented/assumed facts, givens, 
opinions, theorys, etc. without good support for the facts, or 
disclaimers for the opinions.

Next 3, even after all the facts are agreed  upon, there is still some 
unquantifiable (?) items that can't be definitively compared.  For 
instance: Programing to support " in a file name is hard.  Programing to 
support " in a file name is needed.  I think both are true.  Now it is 
up to management to decided if it is worth the expense to achieve the 
reward.  Given that the only management around here is the developers, I 
would say it is pretty much up to the developers to figure out what they 
want to do.  Telling a developer they shouldn't do something seems like 
a waste of bandwidth.  Telling a user that their request is dumb needs 
to be done carefully.  If the user's facts are in error, then just 
saying "Nu uh!" isn't going to be very effective;  Siting a source is.


Now to nitpick the last post, just cuz it's fun and maybe productive.

 > spaces in them. There is no hard cut-off point as to what is an 
acceptable
 > character other than what the underlying filesystem itself will 
allow. All I

mplayer is cross platform and even "cross fs", so there is no "the 
underlying file system itself"

Also, using the limitations of something else seems very short sited. 
Some day the limitation of the something else may be eliminated, and 
then the limitation will still exist for no good reason.

 > was saying is that characters such as " are *problem* characters in many
 > situations, so as a general rule for an easy life they are best avoided.

Having to avoid something is a problem too.  Think about avoiding files 
with the letter "e" in the name;  would that cause you any problems?

 > Personally if I found an application which did not support " in a 
filename, it
 > wouldn't bother me as I don't use that character in filenames. That's 
just my
 > opinion and the way I deal with that issue.

Good!   This is one persons opinion – I don't want to see anyone 
suggesting that it is not his  opinion.  Opposing opinions are welcome, 
just as long as they are properly qualified.

I need more gasoline.

Carl K