[vlc-devel] [PATCH] patches applied to VLC

Ross Finlayson finlayson at live555.com
Tue Nov 15 20:26:07 CET 2011


I'm not sure how much of this rant was intended for me, and how much was intended for the "vlc-devel" mailing list.

The real problem here is that you are 'patching' the LIVE555 code at all.  The code - as I distribute it - works just fine for almost everyone, as far as I can tell, and is not intended to be 'patched' it at all before being usable.  Most people should be able to use the LIVE555 code in VLC 'as is', I think.

Note, for example, patch 1, about "inet_ntoa()" not being thread safe.  While that's true, it's not important for LIVE555 and VLC because (1) we use our own version of this function, with our own name, and (2) LIVE555 code is not accessed by more than one thread in VLC at all (at least, it shouldn't be).

Similarly, I'm not convinced yet about the need for patches 2 and 3.  Patches 4 and 5 look more plausible, but this is the first that I had heard about them (read the next two paragraphs).

But if you really feel that you need to modify the code to get it to work for VLC, then why did you never tell me about this before (e.g., using our "live555-devel" mailing list)???  If you ask me nicely, and your request is reasonable, then I'll gladly update the released code accordingly.  That would be the best solution for everyone.

VLC is a great system, and I love it, and I recommend it to everyone, and I respect its developers - but it's not the center of the universe, and it's far from the only application out there that uses the LIVE555 libraries.  If you think the LIVE555 code needs to be changed to work better, then surely you'll agree that it'd be better (nicer) if you let these other applications get the benefit of these changes, rather than keeping them exclusive to VLC.

So, what would you like me to do now?  Should I review these 'patches', and make appropriate modifications to the released LIVE555 source code (not necessarily identical to these 'patches', but probably close)?  If I do this, do you then promise, in the future, to let me know if you feel that the code needs to be modifed again before being used by VLC (so that other applications can also get the benefits of these modifications)?


Ross Finlayson
Live Networks, Inc.
http://www.live555.com/

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