[Ffmpeg-devel] FFMPEG code a mess

[Dario Andrade]

> 
> 	Maybe we're being too hard on the sciatl.com guy. Based on his email
> and every OO/C++/Java FAQ I have ever read, I think a complete OO
> rewrite could magically solve every shortcoming that FFmpeg has. Indeed,
> it's high time for FFmpeg++.
> 

FFMPEG is more object oriented than most of many C++ programs I know.
In fact, many C programs I know are very well OO designed.

If you realize, all specific class of functionality is contained under
a set of functions that manipulate a certain context (ratecontrol,
motionestimation, codec context, images, etc...). This is the principle of
OO.

FFMPEG teached me a lot on how to write simple, very small (only the
essential to do the job), and clean with low-overhead language features.
This should really be taken in consideration. I think that spending a lot of
time on studying how a complex piece of software engineering machine (as a
video/audio codec is) is the minimum someone can do if he wishes to port or
work with it.

> 	Anyone else want to jump in here? Decomposing object hierarchies is
> much more fun than doing actual programming work.
> 

I bet ffmpeg people wouldn't even be able to finish the mpeg1 encoder
if such an abstraction would have to be implemented.

Time spent on modelling complex architecture is time not spent on developing
and debugging new features.

> >>     - - - - - - -  Appended by Scientific-Atlanta, Inc.  - - - - - - -
> 
> 	I think we need to include this in as much email traffic as
> possible.
> It will make this discussion score much higher on Google when someone
> searches for info on that company.

Well, that could be interesting, don't you think? ;-)

> 
> --
> 	-Mike Melanson
> 


Anyway, this is my 2 cents...

Cheers,
Dario