[FFmpeg-devel] Reintroducing FFmpeg to Debian

[Matthias Urlichs]

Hi,

wm4:
> In fact, the API cleanup is an ongoing process, and is what causes the
> incompatibilities with each release. For example, a C library should
> have a consistent naming schema. FFmpeg/Libav decided to use AV and av_
> as prefixes for all symbols in the public header files. This required
> fixing some symbols, which of course broke some applications.
> 
One could add weak aliases and/or marked-as-deprecated C macros
instead of doing a "hard" renaming.

To be fair, the GCC change which even allowed emitting a warning upon use
of a macro isn't _that_ old …

> Yes, that would be nice. The FFmpeg/Libav split is mostly a
> political/social issue though: it seems some (not all) members from
> each side just can't deal with some (not all) members from the other
> side.
> 
> How do you fix this? It seems impossible.
> 
Kick the non-cooperating people off both projects. :-P

(One slight problem with this solution is that the net effect is likely to
be three forks instead of two, not one …)

> (Also, btw.: sometimes the low level aspect of the libraries is simply
> needed. It's just that most applications would be better off with a
> more high level API.)

Most CS problems can be solved by adding yet another level of indirection –
except for the problem of having too many levels of indirection and –
relevant here – the associated decrease in speed.

-- 
-- Matthias Urlichs