Re: [hxplay] Re: Helix Player virtual team meeting



Ronald Bultje wrote:

Hi Ryan,

On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 00:36, Ryan Gammon wrote:
At the same time, I feel that it is too hard for your average gtk developer to drop a video widget into his or her application.

Why? This really isn't harder than a few keystrokes or mouseclicks.
Surely, people who can't code will find this hard, but I'm assuming
you're not aiming at them, are you? I'm sorry, but I really don't see
why a video widget would be harder to use for anyone if it's not
Gtk-prefixed. ;).


Here's my thinking: Let's say I am a random developer, new to gtk, gnome, and unix in general, but handy with a C compiler.

I have written a cool application, and I want to add a short help presentation to it using something like SMIL [1], because I think it will make my app easier to use. I need a video widget.

My first instinct is going to be to check out gtk.org for anything video-related in the gtk documentation.

Two things can happen at this point:

1. Gtk has a documentation page with a gtk-prefixed interface for a basic video widget, and a list of links to engines that implement that interface, and maybe a "which engine is right for me" document.

2. The potential developer finds nothing on gtk.org, and is faced with going off into the wilds of the internet in search of helix and bacon. He has to find these projects, deduce that they can be used to play video, and determine that they both integrate well with gtk.

I think there's a good chance that our developer will give up and bundle the SMIL presentation separately, hoping that the user will play the help file in a stand-alone player.

I think we can make multimedia widgets easier to use without bloating gtk. Having video in gtk will get it into more language bindings, more gui builders, and generally into the thinking of more software developers.

I like the video widget idea, though. Are there any practical ideas yet?
Are you intending to make it work similar to (e.g.) bacon, or will it
just be a 'new' design, not based on anything?


The basics of our widget work like Bacon's. We differ in our advanced functionality, which is a reflection of the engines we are wrapping.

The widget is used in both our autotools-built gtk example player [2], and in our glade-based helix player [3].

[1] SMIL is like w3c-ized flash: http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
[2] https://player.helixcommunity.org/source/browse/player/app/example/src/gtkplay.c?rev=1.2
[3] https://player.helixcommunity.org/

--
Ryan Gammon
rgammon real com
Developer for Helix Player
https://player.helixcommunity.org





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