[nzlug] developer cultures

[Martin Bähr]

On Wed, Oct 24, 2007 at 10:08:08AM +1300, David McNab wrote:
> I've put forward the argument that the ffmpeg APIs (libavcodec,
> libavformat etc) are unnecessarily low-level, and could benefit strongly
> from higher level C primitives (or even C++ classes) which abstract away
> a lot of the 'red tape'.

that is a good suggestion.

> I've offended the developers by suggesting that if libc were like
> lavc/lavf, then it would take hundreds of lines to do an fopen().

but this comment is not nice.

even if true, people rarely like to be told that they are wrong.
it would be better to make concrete suggestions for improvement.

work on your suggestion. design an api, and if you have the time,
implement it [*]. and show why it is better. that is what free software is
all about.

don't try to make others submit to your ideas, but contribute your ideas
free of expectations.

[*] if you are actually using the lavc/lavf in your project, then
imlementing that api should not cost you to much, because in the end you
have to implement that code for your project anyways, so all you really
need to do is to abstract your code that calls lavc/lavf, and then
contribute that abstraction to lavc/lavf. it does not need to be
complete. it only needs to implement what you need. but it will be a
start that others can build upon...

greetings, martin.
-- 
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Martin Bähr       http://www.iaeste.or.at/~mbaehr/