MacOS X/Darwin port status

[Christophe Massiot]

I have committed tonight the first patches for the MacOS X port of 
vlc. Our planning for this port is :

1. Have vlc compile & run with dummy outputs - DONE
2. Have x11 plugin work - FAILED [A]
    or alternatively have sdl plugin work - FAILED [B]
3. Write a native audio output plugin - IN PROGRESS [C]
4. Port DeCSS-like features - IN PROGRESS [D]
5. Write a native video output plugin - TODO
6. Write a native aqua interface - TODO
7. Write Altivec optimizations - PLANNED [E]

* Status :

The latest cvs should compile flawlessly under MacOS X (untested 
under Darwin), provided you have installed the dl library :
<http://fink.sourceforge.net/files/dlcompat-20010123.tar.gz>

vlc can then play .mpg or unencrypted .vob files. There is no audio 
support in this release, no specific interface, and video support is 
waaaaay too slow. We welcome all sorts of contributions (API 
information, code contribution...).

* Detailed comments :

[A] X11 plugin compiles, but Xshm doesn't work (Bad request => 
segfault), so we disabled it. The performance is *VERY* 
disappointing, both XFree 4.0.2 and Tenon XTools seem to be 
physically unable of displaying 1 fps at normal size.

[B] SDL plugin compiles but doesn't link because a symbol seems to be 
defined in both vlc and Carbon library. I haven't searched a lot, SDL 
on MacOS X seems to be pretty immature and still relies on the Carbon 
layer.

Since no temporary hack can offer satisfying video output playback, 
we'll have to wait for #5.

[C] Colin Delacroix <colin at zoy.org> is working on it. Any information 
would be greatly appreciated, since Apple docs are shamefully shallow.

[D] Samuel Hocevar <sam at via.ecp.fr> is working on it, any information 
would be greatly appreciated.

[E] I'll be working on that soon.

-- 
Christophe Massiot.