[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-multimedia
Subject:    Re: noatun and KDE 2.1
From:       Charles Samuels <charles () kde ! org>
Date:       2000-11-26 1:23:42
[Download RAW message or body]

On lørdag 25 november 2000, 09:44 am, Stefan Westerfeld wrote:
> Hi!
>
> On Sat, Nov 25, 2000 at 09:23:31AM -0800, Charles Samuels wrote:
> > I've been thinking about this, and I've been hesitant in moving it to KDE
> > 2.1 because noatun itself needs to maintain binary compatiblity with its
> > own plugins, which means I can't release it until I'm sure BC can be
> > enforced, and then break it at KDE3.  This is especially true if we want
> > noatun to be a "legitimate" media player like xmms, versus the cheap hack
> > like... er, xmms :)
>
> Probably it is better if you add an explicit notice to the plugin interface
> that there will be no binary compatibility against the 2.1 version (or if
> it won't be in 2.1, the 2.2 version), than not releasing noatun for a long
> time.
>
> I explicitely don't maintain BC for anything in kdemultimedia/arts either
> (like the GUI modules, or synthesis modules, or midi stuff), because I
> can't make promises for that. However, I do release the stuff, because
> otherwise it won't get really finished ;).
>
> I would rather see noatun bugs get fixed/tracked down, than fixing kaiman
> bugs and throwing out kaiman a few weeks later.
>
> > If we want it to be a legitimate media player, maybe working on arts and
> > mpeglib is more important, especially the mp3 player. (count the amount
> > of arts bugs for kaiman: http://bugs.kde.org/db/pa/lkaiman.html )
>
> I just went through all of them, and from the aRts side of things, there is
> nothing much left to do in the 2.1 branch. The worst crashes, symlink
> issues etc. have been fixed in the CVS. We do have a mp3 performance
> problem against xmms though. But all this doesn't impact whether or not we
> should release noatun.
I consider that a non-ship :)  What'l happen is that people will think kaiman 
is a totally different thing than noatun.  Then they notice "ugh, this is 
just as slow as the old KDE Media player," and forever are we doomed into 
being the slow as all hell.  Now, *I* for one can use it, but I also have a 
300mhz CPU entirely devoted to arts (which comes in very handy for my Vorbis 
files :)  But the fact is, we all compile our source so have enourmous 
machines.  But you also forget that people are going to be coming in with 
Pentium 200MMX systems and will barely be able to use it.

Let's put it this way:
I ran winders95 on a P133.  I play MP3s just fine.  I switched to linux, and 
kmp3 could play MP3s file.  Now I use a dual P2/300, and I don't mind a media 
player that takes 20% of my entire computer (that's 40% of a P2/300)

Another issue I have is lack of portability.  It should work on all 
platforms, even if it doesn't work well.

Basically, I don't want noatun to forever be seen as the "slow as all hell" 
media player.  Even if it gets far better, users will always associate it 
with "slow."  Fortunately, most users will not associate kaiman with noatun.

/me flips the "rambling" switch to off

BTW, I'm taking a two week vacation from noatun, I havn't even looked at the 
code.  This is good, I really need this break!  (one week to go)

-Charles


>
>    Cu... Stefan
_______________________________________________
Kde-multimedia mailing list
Kde-multimedia@master.kde.org
http://master.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-multimedia

[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]