[FFmpeg-devel] Dropping SDL1 support [VOTE]

[Hendrik Leppkes]

On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 7:36 PM, James Almer <jamrial at gmail.com> wrote:
> There have been some complains from developers about keeping both
> SDL1 and SDL2 support at the same time even after all SDL1 code
> has been already ported, and especially since it makes maintaining
> ffplay more complex, so seeing the waters are divided I think the
> best solution will be to vote.
>
> Arguments in favor of keeping SDL1:
> * Debian Old-Stable and Ubuntu 12.04 don't ship an usable SDL2
>   by default, meaning a few extra steps for anyone wanting to
>   compile ffmpeg git would be needed to keep ffplay and the sdl
>   outdev working on them.
> * We have a dev willing to maintain the SDL1 version of ffplay
>   until the above two distros are EOLed.
>
> Arguments in favor of dropping SDL1:
> * SDL1 is old and effectively unmaintained.
> * The above distros will never upgrade their ffmpeg packages.
> * Anyone compiling ffmpeg git from source on any of the above
>   distros most likely already has to deal with other missing
>   deps, like any recent x264, be it from unnofficial PPAs or
>   manually compiling from source. SDL2 would not be any
>   different in that regard.
> * Even though we have a dev willing to maintain the deprecated
>   SDL1 code, he'd rather not have to deal with it.
>
> Other arguments in favor or against are welcome.
>
> The vote will end 1 week from now, simple majority wins, and
> it's open only to those in the voting committee[1].
> Marton Balint, while not in the committee, should IMO also
> have the chance to vote or at least comment since he's the
> main ffplay maintainer.
>
> Regards.
>

I vote for dropping SDL1 if adequate replacements based on SDL2 are
made available before.
I don't think its too much to ask developers of ffmpeg to either use
at least half-recent distributions, or be aware that its their
responsibility to gather external dependencies.

We typically ask much more of the users (ie. run ffmpeg git before
reporting issues), independent of availability in their distributions.

- Hendrik