[mythtv] V2Capture::AddCardInput

[David Engel]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2022 at 08:28:43AM -0600, John P Poet wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 5, 2022, 12:33 AM Klaas de Waal <klaas.de.waal at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 5 Jul 2022 at 05:13, John P Poet <jppoet at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> On Mon, Jul 4, 2022 at 8:30 PM David Engel <david at istwok.net> wrote:
> >>> On Mon, Jul 04, 2022 at 08:03:45PM -0600, John P Poet wrote:
> >>> > Hi all,
> >>> >
> >>> > I don't think the call to CardUtil::IsUniqueDisplayName() should be
> >>> fatal
> >>> > in V2Capture::AddCardInput. *Only the last two characters* of the
> >>> > DisplayName are considered to determine if it is unique. That unfairly
> >>> > penalizes users who use a theme which can display more than two
> >>> characters.
> >>> >
> >>> > Thoughts?
> >>>
> >>> The last two characters of the short, display name can be and is used
> >>> in themes.  Without enforcing this uniqueness requirement, themes that
> >>> use the short, dispaly name will present ambiguous inputs.
> >>>
> >>> David
> >>>
> >>
> >> It should be up to the user to choose Display Names which work with the
> >> theme they have chosen. Why penalize some users just to protect other users
> >> from making a poor choice?
> >>
> >> John
> >>
> >> As I understand it, it is only a presentation string so it does not
> > matter for correct operation.
> > Consider using a 4-tuner HDHomeRun box. It is not really important which
> > of the four tuners are used so a string like "HC" (short for HDHomerun

You are correct that the physical tuner doesn't matter.  However, if
you care about scheduling or especially, having to support scheduling
issues, the logical tuner very much matters.

> > Cable) could then be used for all four input connections.
> > So I suggest doing it the same as in mythtv-setup; generate a default that
> > is unique, e.g. "Input 12", but leave the decision to the user.

It defaults to "Input XX", or at leat it used to.

> Let's move CardUtil::IsUniqueDisplayName() to its own services API call.
> Then the application can use it to warn the user of the consequences of
> their choice.

I strongly disagree.  Perhaps you never noticed, but the short,
display name is used in multiple places like the System Status screen
and the Change Input menu in live TV.  The intent was to replace input
number with the [unique] short, display name in every user-facing
location.  The reason for that was to more gracefully handle the
proliferation of inpuss and increasingly, meaningless numbers.  In my
case, I don't even know nor care what my input numbers are anymore.

As for the length of the unique part, I think 2 characters is enough.
However, as I stated in my private email, 3 could probably work if
theme designers agree.

David
-- 
David Engel
david at istwok.net