[MPlayer-users] Quicktime playback on MPlayer/Linux -- Somevideos play in ultra-slow-motion?

[The Wanderer]

Phil Rhodes wrote:

>> MPlayer compiled and worked perfectly with no more than that
>> (allowing for 'su' to gain root privileges for the install step)
>> for me from the very beginning.
> 
> Probably because you take care to ensure that your environment is 
> practically bit-identical with the developers.

Nope. The initial environment was plain-vanilla Debian Sarge (back when
that was stable) and whatever compiler/etc. come with it, plus the
source tree (initially taken from a release tarball, then later on
downloaded via Subversion), and I've updated my compiler and other tools
more or less when the whim took me since then - including one complete
"build a new computer, install the OS and tools from scratch, and copy
the source tree across from the old machine".

> For those of us for whom computers are a means rather than an end,
> this is not practical, nor is it reasonable to expect it to be. I
> suspect your definition of "worked perfectly" is a bit more flexible
> than mine; if I have to hack strange values into obscure text files,
> manually unpack library source into various directories, add
> repositories, obtain files, deploy them by hand - I consider that
> "not working perfectly".

Unless you have strange definitions for some of those steps, I have
never had to do any of them to get MPlayer to compile. I believe I said
as much; all it took after downloading the source was that same set of
steps you stated, './configure ; make ; make install'.

> You may consider it all in a day's work but you cannot realistically
> deny that those sorts of tasks are an inevitable part of more or less
> every software deployment on Linux and they are emphatically NOT
> simple.

Of course I can deny that. Most software installation I do goes
flawlessly. Where I *have* had problems, it's been in projects other
than MPlayer.

> Evidence? I could list software and environments I've tried to do
> this on, and I'll tell you how that discussion would go. First off,
> you'd pick on the more obscure pieces of software, saying things
> like: "oh, that's just not very well written, I know the guys who
> work on that, they're all idiots."

I'm talking about MPlayer. There are certainly problems with some
projects; I could point to some which have given me fits in the past.
You started out by bashing MPlayer's compilation and installation,
however, and that's what I was objecting to.

> Then you'd blame the distro I was using - "oh, that's just not a very
> good distro, it doesn't include X, Y and Z." Then, assuming I had the
> patience to humour you and install another, you'd have reasons that
> wasn't any good either - "it doesn't include A, B and C? What a waste
> of space!"

I'd be unlikely to do either of those things.

> Then we'd move on to ad hominem attacks on me personally,

Almost certainly not. When I attack someone personally, it isn't to
attempt to win an argument, it's because I have become convinced that
they really are bad enough to deserve whatever the description may be.

> blaming my technical expertise,

I'd just like to note that this would not constitute an ad hominem
attack; it might be inappropriate anyway, that depends on the context,
but it by itself is not an attack.

> and finally, we'd get around to "oh, well, Linux isn't for 
> everybody", which is of course the point I've been trying to make all
> along.

I doubt I would attempt to use that as an argument.

> I have had this series of discussions so many times with so many
> people it's moved through irritating and infurating to just being
> boring. There is no interest in solving these problems because
> according to the people who could solve them, they do not exist. You
> guys really do have an excuse for everything.

I'm not even one of the people who could solve them. What I am, in this
particular case, is someone who does not see even a fraction of the
problem you claim exists. My personal experience does not prove that the
problem does not exist, but I am certainly not willing to accept your
bare assertion that it does as constituting proof.

> The sad fact is that software deployment on Linux is a sick joke, a
> complete farce, a barely-alpha-quality disaster zone, and it will
> remain so whether you choose to accept it or not.

This was the case a decade or so ago. It isn't the case now. The
situation may not be ideal yet, and it will likely continue to improve,
but if you're going to make this type of claim you're going to have to
back it up with something other than aggressive assertions.

> Look, I'm not blaming you guys, it's a general Linux problem, and the
> reason I avoid the platform - but again, claiming these issues do not
> exist does not make them go away.

I'm not claiming they don't exist at all. I'm claiming they don't exist
to nearly the extent you say, and barely exist at all in the case of
MPlayer. If you have evidence to refute that, please present it.

-- 
       The Wanderer

Warning: Simply because I argue an issue does not mean I agree with any
side of it.

Secrecy is the beginning of tyranny.