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

[Malcolm Caldwell <malcolm caldwell ntu edu au>]

On Thu, 2004-09-02 at 16:19 +0200, Damien Sandras wrote:
[...]
> It seems to me that the problem is that users are trying to use ohphone
> with non-friendly names, but it only accepts friendly names. Using it
> with friendly names certainly does work. GnomeMeeting is using friendly
> names since 1.00 and we got no report that it was failing to open the
> device.
> 
> > I still think that using the friendly names is a bad design decision,
> > but if it's working, then I'm certainly not proposing changing it for
> > hell of it
> 
> OK let's back to the real root of the problem.
> 
> Do you think that a good GUI should present :
> "Philips ToUCam Pro 2"
> "BTTV card"
> "Quickcam USB"
> 
> or 
> 
> "/dev/video0"
> "/dev/video1"
> "/dev/video2"
> 
> to users?

If you ask me (and you didn't!)

Just present a both, in a sort of a table like:
"Philips ToUCam Pro 2" /dev/video0
"BTTV card"            /dev/video1
"Quickcam USB"         /dev/video2

ie always report both names, but indicate they are the same device.

Then let the user select one line of this table.  So the question is
which device should gm ask for on open?  I say - use the friendly name
if it is available, otherwise use the device name. (*)

Now, I don't know this code at all but...  to do this pwlib could return
a list of devices as ("name", "alias").  (Is more than one alias
needed?)

Surly that meets usability standards???

(*) Now there MAY be users who want to say "I want /dev/video0 -
regardless of what device that is today"  I don't know why they might
but...  Let them use gconf-editor to enter that in if they so desire.