Re: Gnome Media Library

[Mo McKinlay <mmckinlay labs interopen org>]

# If you get the hopefully differentlu named OpenPlay to be compatible with
# Microsoft's DirectPlay, I know about 10,000 game developers that would give
# you a kiss.  Well, a hug at least.  OK, a beer?  I wouldn't kiss you... ;-)

Aww, you got my hopes up then, too ;-)

I think we're starting to touch on a much broader issue - DirectX covers a
helluva lot more than multimedia, although it is primarily MM-centered. If
we decide to embark on this, it would quite definitely need to be split
into (admittedly large) sub-projects. I do think this is going far beyond
the original idea (i.e., a media framework for GNOME), but it's something
worth persuing. An open source general-purpose media framework that
encompasses everything that DirectX, QuickTime and the Be Media Kit do
would do wonders for all sorts of things. Hey, why don't we throw
PostScript into that bag too, and get the GS people involved? :-)
 
# Or, we could make our own API, then someone could go and write a wrapper
# library... that would be nifty.  I think that anything that makes
# transition from Windows/Max to Linux easier, for developers or users, is
# a "good thing," since that means we can get less the computer-savvy
# users over to the "open" side and some of  the more stubborn (read:
# foolish) programmers, too.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who'd considered a wrapper (this entered my
mind on my galant journey to McDonald's earlier [see previous mail] :)

One of the other things I'd considered was a MM scripting language for
doing toolbook/director-style multimedia applications, relying on this
luverly newfangled toolkit that doesn't yet exist and we're all talking
about. Something for the future, perhaps?

-- 
Mo McKinlay                                T: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x1
Chief Software Architect                   F: +44 (0) 709 22 55 05  x3
inter/open                                 E: mmckinlay@labs.interopen.org
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