VLC on versiontracker?

[The DJ]

on 13-05-2002 07:28, Bill Eldridge at bill at rfa.org wrote:

> The DJ wrote:
>> 
>> on 12-05-2002 19:08, Tim Anderson at ande2965 at tc.umn.edu wrote:
>> 
>>> It seems that they're taking the latest version from CVS and building the
>>> Apple installer around it and releasing it. I downloaded it from their
>>> website, but didn't install. I opened up the package file, and it's just the
>>> VLC app pre-compiled and the installer places it in the Applications folder.
>>> Why they think this is a contribution, I don't know. They just seem to be
>>> trying to take credit for making the CVS builds available without the need
>>> to compile anything.
>> 
>> Jeesh, why an installer around it. This is not necessary at all.
> 
> Ummm...many users of OS X treat it like...a Mac.
> If the installer puts it in the Applications folder so
> it pops up read for use when they look in Applications,
> this seems to be a good thing. If they take care of
> doing nightly builds for Mac OS X, this is a good thing.
> 
> Perhaps I don't understand the gripe.
> 
> Yeah, it's not rocket science, but it's one less not-very-technical
> thing to get the package out there without taking up people's
> time at Videolan.org.


But the installer isn't necessary. It simply puts the vlc into
/Applications. Something everyone can very well do for themselves. And as a
matter of fact most 'old-school' mac users would prefer to do themselves. I
have a lot of experience in this and many mac users just don't like
installers. The packages are obscure to them and they don't know what is
really happening when they install.

I thought that general policy in releases was that if an application in any
way could be built in a way that people can just drag and drop it onto their
system and simply delete one file to get rid of the application (generally
known as a drag-and-drop installation), the application should be released
this way.

Look at how it is done with Omniweb for instance. Just drag it of the
diskimage and put it in /Applications (or anywhere else for that matter) and
you are set to go.
Same goes for Microsoft Office v.X You just drag the folder with all the
apps. to /Applications and you are done.
This goes for hundreds of applications.

I can see why an app like DAVE or SambaX (which is my release) needs to use
an installer, because they have multiple items which go into different
places, but videolan is a real slick package and really doesn't require this
procedure.
>
>>> That said, I think it's great that you're getting exposure on
>>> Version-Tracker, but I think the developer info should point to videolan.org
>>> and not giga-services.net.
>> 
>> Agreed.
>> 
>> I think this guy shouldn't take credit for anything at all. If I were you
>> guys, then I'd mail him and ask him to remove this entry from
>> versiontracker, and then put up an official Videolan.org entry.
>> If he doesn't respond, then simply mail versiontracker.com with a new entry
>> and put your request in the comment field. The folks as versiontracker are
>> very helpful.
> 
> This seems counterproductive.
> 
> The internet is full of people who get thrills out of small
> contributions. When someone starts the program, they'll see
> the programmer information for VLC in help, along with
> www.videolan.org as the home site. What more do you want?


Well I kinda agree with you. If you look at my Samba Sharing Package, then
you see much similarities here. I do a binary release of samba, but these
are not really 'certified' by the samba group. (which I could get done any
time I want it I guess) And I linked to my own page as the developer on
versiontracker as well.

Actually my situation was virtual identical upto several months ago. But
there were differences which made it less severe.
As a first there were substantial differences in the way samba was started.
In the very beginning this was the most commmon source of trouble, since
this starting was still very beta. Next there were several large errors in
the system, most fixed in 10.1, that made samba behave very strange. Besides
that I only claimed making a binary release of a normal samba release, not
CVS, dressed up, so you could actually start it under X. This was in the
time that few developers even knew what a StartupItem was. There were many
problems back then that only I could resolve and really were of no concern
to the samba developers, because I was responsible for most them. So at
versiontracker I used my page as the developer page.

Still I think at the time I was breaking the rules I hold now for others.
Though I still distribute my package, it is now in a totally different form.
It is distributed as a prefPane (which includes samba) and a configuration
file editor. This really makes it a different product, which includes samba,
and this is stated many times on my site and in the readme files. So now I
stand in my right. (I hope, because I haven't had a lawyer look at it ;-)

I am in the process of submitting some of my patches to the samba team. It
is just that samba is a complicated package that is very hard to correctly
adapt for macosx. Especially since apple is working on it too.


Bottom-line?
I'm against because the person has not added any real value but is even
creating confusion among the users about who is responsible for the program.
But mostly I'm against, because he releases CVS snapshots. I mean we all on
this list know what we are doing when we use snapshots. But I know many mac
users that don't even know what CVS is. So for him to state that it is a CVS
snapshot is not enough.
It is real simple. Snapshots are not for the large public and by putting
something on versiontracker.com you present it to the large public.

DJ

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Universiteit Twente
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derk-Jan 'The DJ' Hartman
ICQnr: 10111559
Mail:  mailto:hartman at mac.com
WWW:   http://home.student.utwente.nl/d.hartman/
Goto:  http://xamba.sourceforge.net


-- 
This is the vlc mailing-list, see http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
To unsubscribe, please read http://www.videolan.org/lists.html
If you are in trouble, please contact <postmaster at videolan.org>