[mythtv] HAL and myth was "thoughts about the "mythtv sucks" comments... " was "video sources"

[Stuart Morgan]

On Wednesday 28 November 2007 23:51:16 Don Smith wrote:
> I don't mean to add any negativity to the list, on the contrary I'd like
> to know why HAL isn't a drop in replacement, and the homerun is one
> thing I hadn't thought of. I'd like to hear other reasons as well so I
> can understand the issue better.
> One of the reasons I asked the question is that I like to recommend myth
> to alot of my friends, but in the current state, I'd be the one setting
> it up.

I'm replying to Don's post, but this is aimed not at any individual but to the 
list in general.

The devs are well aware of the faults, failings and limitations of mythtv. If 
we had the time many of these issues would have been addressed long ago. I've 
spent time with other devs at Linux events here in the UK and we've discussed 
this subject to death. We've all got a list an arm long of changes we think 
need to be made.

The problem isn't that MythTV has dozens of developers waiting for good ideas 
to implement, it's the opposite, there are hundreds of ideas and tickets to 
be worked on but only a handful of people willing or able to spend their time 
working on it. That's the reason we tend to discourage discussion of possible 
new features and 'wishlists'; time spent debating changes is better used 
working on the code. If you are actively working on a patch and want some 
feedback, that's fine but otherwise it isn't constructive.

I'd like to remind everyone that all the developers are unpaid volunteers. 
Many of us choose the jobs we work on because they interest us personally and 
not because they are considered a high priority by other people. That's the 
only way we are ever going to work, who wants to spend their spare time on an 
job which they find tedious? 

The core developers are also the ones who are going to be maintaining any code 
you submit, so when we reject patches we do it for good reason. There are 
often long term goals for certain parts of mythtv which aren't always evident 
to users, whether it be consolidating areas of code or deprecating things in 
favour of better solutions. This can lead to perfectly good ideas or patches 
being rejected and the appearance that we are hostile. The reality is that 
we're very friendly people but like anyone that is overworked and unpaid we 
can be occasionally grumpy.
-- 
Stuart Morgan