Re: [Banshee-List] Re move the video portion of Banshee?

["Eric Schultz" <hammy charter net>]

To understand my situation, I'm a Banshee user and have worked on developing
a windows specific media player based on Banshee. I've watched this entire
discussion and wanted to speak up because I think its relevant to the
Banshee project.

Comomolo didn't express himself the best, for sure. Saying that adding video
to Banshee means Banshee should be redesigned is just not practical. If
projects redesigned every time some new feature didn't quite fit their
original design then nothing would ever ship. That said, his question was
never really answered that being WHAT does he need to change to remove the
video support for himself (or even the video button)? No one seems to know
where to start (or they haven't shared). This leads me to what I consider
the more important, general point.

The coding documentation for Banshee is severely lacking. Banshee is a
complex piece of software but there is very little documentation to guide
coders. To give you an example, I spent at least 12 hours trying to
understand the start up sequence for Banshee. The sequence moves through 5
different assemblies and starts over 10 different services plus various
plugins. What makes all that seemingly unmanageable is there are no code
documentation comments for methods or classes. I had to work through every
method and class to figure out its purpose, some of which I still don't
totally understand.

Why aren't methods and classes properly documented in the code? This is
something I consider extremely vital for maintenance. If there isn't an
emphasis on well-documented code, perhaps there should be in the future.

I think the current lack of documentation will discourage all but the most
dedicated. This group will have to make a decision whether less
participation from less dedicated coders is trade off they are willing to
make.

Eric

-----Original Message-----
From: banshee-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:banshee-list-bounces gnome org]
On Behalf Of Chow Loong Jin
Sent: Wednesday, November 26, 2008 9:03 PM
To: banshee-list gnome org
Subject: Re: [Banshee-List] Re move the video portion of Banshee?

On Wed, 2008-11-26 at 12:56 -0800, comomolo wrote:
> 
> Alan McGovern-2 wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >> If "OSS development" is so picky about criticism then no, I don't 
> >> really want to participate.
> > 
> > Then don't.
> > 
> 
> I won't and it wasn't my intention anyway. Since you've read the 
> thread so carefully, you'll see I was asking for a way to remove the 
> video portion myself. How this can be considered rude is beyond me.
> 
And you got an answer in the second post of the thread (i.e. from Bertrand).
You cannot remove it without diving into the source and hacking on Banshee
code.
> 
> 
> Alan McGovern-2 wrote:
> > 
> > Bear in mind that you started off on this thread in a very 
> > aggressive manner.
> > 
> You keep saying that and I keep asking for specifics. It's pretty 
> obvious we have different sensitivities (cultural differences maybe?) 
> but these differences won't go away unless you specify where and how 
> did I offend anyone.
> 
Just as you kept being vague and we kept asking for specifics. Blah blah
undesirable changes, incomplete UI. But where? that only came in your fourth
post. Why couldn't you be specific to begin with? And don't even begin
bringing up cultural differences. I'm Asian just so you know, and I agree
with the rest of them.
> 
> Alan McGovern-2 wrote:
> > 
> >  You didn't actually state your real issue until your fourth post 
> > (7th post on the thread). You didn't fully explain your issue until 
> > your 6th post (13th in the thread).
> > 
> Wrong: I stated my only issue in post 1. I just wanted to remove the 
> video portion of Banshee (precisely because I do know OSS developers 
> and fanboys, and they don't actually want user input unless it's for 
> praising the thing or mildly disagree with their ideas). Then I was 
> more or less asked why, then I explained the roots of my opinion. BTW, 
> nobody has actually explained how the video portion could be removed 
> from Banshee should I wish to remove it myself. It was so easy and yet 
> the only thing I got was a "look for it yourself". Speaking about
aggressive behaviour...
> 
Now, this is being spiteful and childish. We want user input, that is right.
But we do not appreciate baseless (or seemingly baseless, because you refuse
to clarify yourself) comments such as what you have done. "I want this
removed because it is bad". But WHY? You refused to clarify until your
fourth post. Was it really so hard? 

Either way, if you want to remove the video portion, you'll need to have
enough knowledge of C# to make sure everything still functions after that,
and if you have enough skill to do that, then you have enough skill to
locate the portions of code that correspond to video playback as well with
relative ease.
> 
> Alan McGovern-2 wrote:
> > 
> > As it stands, there is absolutely nothing further to be gained by 
> > anybody posting further on the issue.
> > 
> I said that too already, but since you insist in evaluating my 
> attitude, I hope at least you allow me to defend myself.
> 
> 
> Alan McGovern-2 wrote:
> > 
> > developers, whose opinions are the only ones that really matter ;)
> > 
> My mistake. I always forget that rule of open source.
> 
But developers listen to opinions. All you dished out at the beginning were
baseless complaints.
--
Chow Loong Jin