[mythtv] Proposal for mythfilldatabase and display-names

[Scott RoLanD]

I am working on the it_lt grabber and want to have mythfilldatabase
fill in the following (as indicated by their labels in setup and their
variables in the code):
  Channel Name   - chaninfo->name
  Channel Number - chaninfo->chanstr
  Callsign       - chaninfo->callsign

In the current code it appears that for the default XMLTV grabbers it
takes the first display-name as the "Channel Name" and the second
display-name (if present) as the "Channel Number". I don't know which
of the grabbers, if any, use this feature currently. Notably the Japan
grabber is special cased to treat the second display-name (if present)
as the "Callsign".

What I propose is making the third display-name (if present) the
"Callsign". A problem arises when the XMLTV grabber does not have a
channel number for the channel but it does have a callsign. To handle
this I propose checking to see if the second display-name has any non
numeric characters in it, and if it does then make it the "Callsign"
and leave the "Channel Number" blank. As is currently done, setting
these values is only done if they do not already have a
value. Therefore my modification would also allow the third (or more)
display-name to be used as the "Channel Number" if it is the first to
be solely numeric.

Any objections or suggestions on a better way to handle the problem?

Lastly, is there anyplace (other than the code) that these sort of
rules are documented (and I thus would need to update)?

Thanks.
-- 
Scott Roland