[gst-devel] Re: GStreamer port to other platforms ?

[Erik Walthinsen]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Georg Waldschmidt wrote:

> when I was looking for a multi platform media libray, I first tried
> smpeg. But this is only for MPEG-1 and difficult to expand to other
> Codecs. Then I found MpegLib by Martin Vogt. Although the release
> version supports only MPEG-1, this library has a plugin interface for
> other Codecs (MPEG-2, DivX). So I prepared a port to Win32 using the
> SDL interface (version 0.4.0 on mpeglib.sourceforge.net).
> But when I took a look on GStreamer, I saw that GStreamer exactly is
> what I was looking for.
> So my question: I would like to port GStreamer to other platforms,
> first to Win32. Do you have any interest on this port ?
> If not, I will skip this idea, because without your agreement it is
> senseless.
> Otherwise, GStreamer may become a competitor to some of the products
> of Real (i.e. Real-Player, Real-Producer) as a multi platform media
> framework.

I would very much like to see a win32 port, but don't have time to do it
myself (nor any remaining patience with the windoze development
environment).  I'll definitely do all I can to help out such a port
though, as that's just another step on the path to total world
domination... ;-)

The major code issues I see are: cothreads (shim with fibers), pthreads
(use cygwin?), audiosink (replace with windoze-specific plugin), and
videosink (replace with DirectDraw and/or GDI plugin).  None of those
should be all that hard, though.

There will also be a lot of gcc-specific code that you'll have to find
ways to either modify to be more compliant, or otherwise work around.
Most of this (if not all) is in some specific plugins.

The biggest headache is going to be the build environment and all that
stuff.  I have no idea what the best method is there, except possibly
giving cygwin a go all the way from the begining, and using autoconf and
friends just like on Linux.  I think that would actually be by far the
best method, if you can cleanly interface that with regularly-built
programs (i.e. in VC++) later.

As for RealMedia, I don't even consider it a competitor at all, from the
3.5mo I spent "working" with it... <g>

      Erik Walthinsen <omega at temple-baptist.com> - System Administrator
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