[mythtv] Start using Mythtv/cvs

[Matt Zimmerman]

On Sat, Dec 28, 2002 at 01:46:26PM -0500, Lego Andy wrote:

> Do not agree entirely with you. Please read 16.4. It does have
> instructions for using development code.

These instructions are provided by the author to help people in getting
started with the development code.  They are not a manual, and they will be
incomplete whenever anything significant changes in the development version.

>  I agree, it is not finished, but is 0.7 not a development version? If
>  that is the case, why not whole number. I think whoever is using software
>  like mythtv is using a development code. Now, this does not mean the
>  software is bad. Far from that. I think you guys did an impressive job so
>  far. So, please take my comments as suggestions not as critiques.

0.7 is a release, and there is a fundamental difference between using
released code and using whatever happens to be in the CVS repository today.
Basically, the code in CVS will undergo constant change, and when it is
decided that it is time for a release, things are cleaned up and packaged so
that it is ready to run.  This is a very common approach to software
development, and is not at all specific to this project.

"bugs" that people report in unreleased software usually fall into these
categories:

- Real bugs.  These are usually welcome, especially when the problem is not
  known to the developers, and enough analysis is provided so that the bug
  can be found and fixed

- Things which are temporarily broken due to the implementation of a new
  feature, or other restructuring.  There is no point in complaining about
  these unless you are following development closely enough to know what is
  expected to work and what is not.

- Things which prevent people from using the program "out of the box".
  There is no point in complaining about these unless you provide a patch,
  since this sort of thing is not worth bothering with until release time

- Features which simply aren't implemented yet.  "It would be nice if..."
  This applies equally to release software.  Open source developers will
  generally work on what interests them, and asking them to implement
  your pet feature is counter-productive.

> Ok, so about segfaults, I don't know what caused them, but once I modified
> directories in setup, those segfaults went away. So, just to test this
> theory, I went to setup, under "Playback" and found "Live TV buffer:" and
> put some bogus directory there. Now the backend crashes again. So, the
> problem IS directory. Again, this is not a critique but a bug report.
> 
> Now, I will eventually build mythtv with debug symbols so that I can tell
> you exactly where it crashes, but until then you guys are on your own.

I look forward to it.  Since this only happens when mythtv is misconfigured
or unconfigured, it doesn't seem like a terribly high priority.

-- 
 - mdz