List: linux-video Subject: [video4linux] New API spec From: Bill Dirks < dirks () rendition ! com> Date: 1998-07-24 20:37:46 Hello, everybody discussing the API spec. I had a lot of ideas about what I would like to see added or changed in the spec based on my experience, and I started writing it down. But because of all the recent activity on this list, now its turning into a rewrite of most of the spec. I am eagerly soaking up all the suggestions and comments people are posting and trying to incorporate all of it together in a consistent way. Including streaming capture, capture-to-frame buffer, compression, select, and more. I am trying to keep it simple so it's easy and fun to use and program, but still have it be full-featured, scalable and extensible. I hope to make it available in the next couple days. I could not attempt to define everything, but I hope to create a basis with everything assembled together that we all can flesh out. Alan, is there a deadline for when we should have the new spec hammered down? Bill. ------------ To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@phunk.org with the line "unsubscribe video4linux" without the quotes in the body of the message.
List: linux-video Subject: Re: [video4linux] New API spec From: Alan Cox <alan () cymru ! net> Date: 1998-07-25 17:34:24 > Alan, is there a deadline for when we should have the new spec hammered > down? A week or so would be nice. Im hoping we dont change anything drastically and cause breakages. Aaln ------------ To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@phunk.org with the line "unsubscribe video4linux" without the quotes in the body of the message.
List: linux-video Subject: Re: [video4linux] New API spec From: "Bill Dirks" <dirks () rendition ! com> Date: 1998-07-26 1:25:45 -----Original Message----- From: Alan Cox <alan@cymru.net> >> Alan, is there a deadline for when we should have the new spec hammered >> down? > >A week or so would be nice. Im hoping we dont change anything drastically >and cause breakages. I think we can make some very worthwhile improvements, but it will cause breakages. But they will be easy to fix. We can keep the old bttv spec in place separate from Video for Linux if you need the legacy bttv stuff to continue working. I posted an early draft of some proposed changes to the spec under the subject "New API spec proposals". It includes, for example, an improved video image format structure. Obviously adopting that will break existing code, but, jeez, it's not hard to adapt code to the new structure! Most of my proposed new or changed data structures have 'reserved' fields in them, so in the future changes can be made without breaking anything. So part of the proposal is about avoiding this very delimma. In the long run it's worth it to make these kinds of changes before tons of applications have been written/ported. There will never be better time to fix the API. Now is our chance. I know it's painful to have to modify working code. I have to modify my driver too. It's not fair to the people who will be writing (and porting) v4l applications and drivers in the future for us to ship a spec that we know has problems we can easily fix but don't because we don't want to break a couple early programs. I think everybody understands that the current spec is experimental and subject to change. I would really like to see Video for Linux be a solid, well-thought-out, high quality foundation for all kinds of video applications. Video applications on personal computers have been novelty or niche items in the past, but I think they will become more and more commonplace and important in the near future. There are many applications that could be applied to Linux if the foundation were there. Linux is highly respected for many kinds of applications; it should be true for digital video too. Have a look at the proposals. If everyone agrees the proposals are a bad idea, I'll drop it. Or else we can work out something we all agree on. Keep in mind that *if* the initial spec is well designed and sufficiently extensible we can add more features and refinements later without breaking code anymore. And that will mean we don't have to solve every problem this week. Bill. ------------ To unsubscribe from this list send mail to majordomo@phunk.org with the line "unsubscribe video4linux" without the quotes in the body of the message.