[mythtv] Some ideas about mythtv and input devices

Keith Layne keith at laynes.org
Wed Dec 27 12:12:02 UTC 2006


 (briefly) looking at the code, it seems like all input is tied to the
(maybe imaginary) keyboard.  Lirc support works by mapping button presses to
fake keyboard events, right?  Does anyone else not like this?  Setting up
lirc support for my installation wasn't that bad, but it wasn't that good
either.  For those of us who don't have a keyboard or mouse hooked up to our
myth boxes, it's just sort of a pain.  I have to grab a laptop or go into
another room and ssh in, change the lircrc file, and restart.  I think that
kind of sucks.  Also, consistency of keybindings across the plugins is not
great.  I know I should be less lazy and configure the keys for each plugin
to my liking, but why should I have to?  I don't want to try to remember
which key I haven't used yet, since I'm not even using a keyboard!

 

It seems natural to include remote control configuration in the MythControl
plugin.  It seems to have no settings at this time, but it could have a
settings page where you select a remote to use/configure (queried from lirc)
or none, and if none, don't show remote stuff in the plugin.  Ideally, you
could configure everything with just the remote (with up, down, left, right,
and select already set up-this would be a good basis for starter config
files) or a keyboard and remote.  You would either select the button from a
menu (okay) or be able to press the button you want from the remote during
configuration (better).  

 

I think the bulk of the work here would be changing the way that mythtv
handles actions.  Right now, it looks like plugins register keypresses via
macros (which I personally don't like).  Instead, they should be registering
actions for the plugin.  I know that they are effectively doing so, but it's
all tied to the keyboard.  All input events should be mapped to these
actions.you get the idea.  Then it's much easier to add support for other
input methods (I don't know if this makes any sense for joysticks, I don't
know if those are mapped to the keyboard as well) that aren't handled
natively by X (or whatever OS you use).  

 

Of course, for lirc specifically there are some issues, like dealing with
the clunky config file.  Also, it looks like the lirc client is just spun
off into a thread.  It would be nice to add the ability to easily kill this
one off and start a new one, so that changes to remote configs could be
effected without restarting the frontend.  Also, I think it would be pretty
easy to make it so that any of these changes don't break the lircrc files of
current users.

 

Anyway, I have some time and am willing to work on all of this.anything that
makes mythtv easier to use for my wife (and yours, or your husband, or your
kids.) I think is a good thing.  Please give me some feedback and let me
know if I've screwed anything up or missed anything important.

 

Thanks,

Keith

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