[vlc-devel] Removing libvlc_vlm_*

[Rémi Denis-Courmont]

	Hello,

VLM is a proof-of-concept of multiple inputs in a single VLC process. It 
achieves that with some ad-hoc configuration file/script syntax. Its usability 
is not exactly great, but, subject to stream output limitations, it works.

AFAIK, "production" VLC users often just spawn one VLC process per input. The 
only VLC feature that actually mandates VLM is the RTSP VoD server - which 
hardly anybody uses. I guess though that a few people actually use VLM through 
configuration files and/or the remote control or HTTP interfaces.


However, there is also a LibVLC API for VLM. But it just wraps the VLM 
scripting language in thin wrappers with no abstraction to speak of. Basically 
everything is strings with hardly even explanations. If you want to use VLM, 
you are generally better off spawning a child VLC process than using the 
LibVLC VLM API. At least, a VLC crash will not take your application down with 
it.

I am not aware of any real use of the LibVLC VLM API. Unsurprisingly, a search 
only yields the source or documentation of VLC and VLC python bindings.


Given that is essentially unused and unusable, I would like to remove it. If 
you know of a genuine use, please make yourself known. And to be clear, I only 
want to remove the LibVLC VLM API, not the underlying VLM at this point.

-- 
雷米‧德尼-库尔蒙
http://www.remlab.net/