[GnomeMeeting-devel-list] Re: [OpenH323]VIDEO ISSUE SOLVED:Reg Latest Openh323 compilation in Linux

[Craig Southeren <craigs postincrement com>]

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 12:10:42 +0200
Damien Sandras <dsandras seconix com> wrote:

..deleted

> OK, can you give me an example of program that lists the same device
> several times? Any usability engineer will tell you that it is a wrong
> approach.

In general you are correct, but like every rule, there are times when it
has to be broken.

Think of why symbolic links exist in filesystems. Do you propose that
"ls" should hide symbolic links from users?

Think of why we have email aliases. Do you propose that your email
program should hide multiple email addresses because they refer to the
same person?

Think of why we allow DNS to have multiple names for the same IP address.
Do you propose that your web browser should only allow use of the
canonical name for a web server, and disallow use of the IP address or
secondary addresses?

I could certainly list more, but I think you see my point.

> > > To put it another way, the V4L plugin has now be adapted for ohphone
> > > users, introducing a broken hack that will require to add another broken
> > > hack in other user programs than ohphone so that they still work in a
> > > clean way.
> > 
> > Well, not just ohphone but just about any other program that  uses video.
> > Except GM, of course.
> 
> Any command-line program.

Yes, that is exactly my point.

> > > Having all devices listed twice is certainly not clean and is just a
> > > hack. Removing duplicatas in user programs is another hack, but it is
> > > your choice and I only gave my opinion :-)
> > > 
> > > > On a related issue, what happens with the friendly names if two
> > > > identical devices are plugged in? How do you choose between them?
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > A good plugin should add something like [1] at the end of the device
> > > name.
> > 
> > The key word there is "should". There is no guarantee that all devices,
> > or even drivers, are doing to do the right thing
> > 
> > There is also the situation where a device does not have a friendly name,
> > or where the name is in a language not known to the user, or where the
> > manufacturer or driver writer has chosen to use the field to store
> > something like a serial number or hex data. I have seen all of these
> > occur in fields that are supposed to be for "friendly" names, and it is
> > always good to have a backup plan.
> 
> I agree that the plugin should be able to open the device with non-
> friendly names, but I disagree that the list of supported devices should
> contain both. But you are the maintainer, so you are free to change the
> plugin if you think it is good. 
> 
> In the end, I can also ship a modified plugin with gnomemeeting if I
> want to.

As always, you are free to fork some or all of the codebase if you feel
that attempting to reach a general solution is too hard. I've never said
otherwise.

I'm disappointed that you feel it is necessary to make this threat in
order "win" this argument, so right now I declare that you have won and
I agree to whatever you want to do. 

I just can't get interested in spending time discussing issues if the
people involved are just going to threaten to fork the code if they
don't get what they want. Life is too short and I've got lots of other
much more interesting things to do.

This will be my last post in this thread - I look forward to seeing the
final result.

   Craig

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 Craig Southeren      craigs postincrement com / craigs voxgratia org

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