[mythtv] DVB Channel Changes

[Leandro Dardini]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tako Schotanus" <quintesse at palacio-cristal.com>
To: "Development of mythtv" <mythtv-dev at mythtv.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 15, 2004 12:36 AM
Subject: Re: [mythtv] DVB Channel Changes


> Just a short answer to you personally because it's no use continuing
> this discussion on the list anyway ;-)
>
> Ben Bucksch wrote:
>
> > Tako Schotanus wrote:
> >
> >> Ramon could have made mplayer optional, that would have been
> >> usefull for people that don't need or want the functionality it offers,
> >> but why?
> >>
> > Exactly because it "would have been usefull for people that don't need
> > or want the functionality" that mplayer offers (finetuning), but who
> > need the rest of MythChannels' functionality (general channel setup,
> > import etc.).
> >
> > Having code that knowingly breaks, even for a significant number of
> > people, just leads to crap quality, step by step.
> >
> I understand more or less what you're trying to say, but you have to
> admit that there's a lot of code in MythTV that is written because the
> people writing it wanted it that way and don't give too much if it's
> always useful for others. If I only look at the functionality, not the
> code quality of Ramon's work I could say that he wrote it just for
> himself and people in his situation.

I have to disagree with you about the "wrote it __just__ for himself". Yes,
he wrote it for a need he has, but the same need is common to all european
mythtv users.


>But you could probably say the same
> for other modules?

Every silly patch I submit is maily for myself. Starting with
internationalization to lcd device. I have a need and I submit some code.
The code I submit is usefull also to other people? This is a nice side
effect, isn't it? Yes, the code I send to Isaac has to be enough general to
be usefull to others otherwise it isn't accepted. So there is a balance and
the project grows in the right direction.
The project mantainer, Isaac, is like an gardener if you think to the
project like a tree. He has to cut some branch and to fertilize others, to
continue the comparison... It is a huge task and I admire every project
mantainer. It is a task I am sure I cannot do.

>
> For me it wouldn't be strange to say: ok, so _I_ make this which is
> useful to me and 20% of other myth users and if somebody sees a way to
> make it useful for 60% of the users, ok fine, let _them_ do the other
> 40%. Requiring that _he_ makes it useful for the other 40% just doesn't
> seem fair.

I must disagree with you again. If I send a piece of code usefull only to
20% of users and simply with an additional "day" of work I can make it
usefull to 60% of users while it costs "10 days" of work to an other people
to make it usefull to 60% simply because I know the code and others have to
learn it, the project mantainer has the moral obligation to ask the initial
developer to complete the task. Taking for example the DVB signal level
check Kenneth is working on. Probably he was satisfied with his personal cvs
branch, but he is working to let others use his code.

>
> But then again, you said it also broke stuff and that shouldn't happen
> of course.

Of course!

>
> Just to be certain: I'm just talking functionality here, not any of the
> other internal problems with code quality and such.
>
> >> MythChannels was an optional module
> >>
> > And that's what it still is, not? If it's just to be an optional
> > module for a few people, Ramon would have been free to put it on
> > sf.net, berlios.de or whereever and have people install it separately.
> > We were discussing to have it in MythTV's default installation, that's
> > when it gets useful for a large number of people, but then it should
> > also *work* for them.
>
> But that's just it, there's lots of stuff in MythTV and CVS that's _not_
> useful for a large number of people, but it's still there and as long as
> it is in the main CVS repository there might still be the hope that you
> could find a maintainer for it even if it was just the occasional fix
> (MythVideo? MythGallery? MythGames? MythDVD? Even MythMusic hasn't
> changed much lately (probably waiting for Thor to finish his stuff ;-)).
>
> >
> > Oh, well, what are we discussing. As long as there's no maintainer
> > willing to pick it up, it's fruitless to argue about could-be,
> > would-have-been.
> >
> True, the same as wishing for more hours in a day so I could take a look
> at it myself :-)
> Still waiting to find time to finally extend the damn LCD support in
> MythTV ;-)

I am waiting for you too... :)

Leandro

>
> Cheers,
>  -Tako
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