[gst-devel] Re: [hxplay] Re: Helix Player virtual team meeting

[Ryan Gammon]

Ronald Bultje wrote:

> Hi Ryan,
>
> On Fri, 2003-12-12 at 00:36, Ryan Gammon wrote: 
>
>> At the same time, I feel that it is too hard for your average gtk 
>> developer to drop a video widget into his or her application.
>
> Why? This really isn't harder than a few keystrokes or mouseclicks.
> Surely, people who can't code will find this hard, but I'm assuming
> you're not aiming at them, are you? I'm sorry, but I really don't see
> why a video widget would be harder to use for anyone if it's not
> Gtk-prefixed. ;).


Here's my thinking: Let's say I am a random developer, new to gtk, 
gnome, and unix in general, but handy with a C compiler.

I have written a cool application, and I want to add a short help 
presentation to it using something like SMIL [1], because I think it 
will make my app easier to use. I need a video widget.

My first instinct is going to be to check out gtk.org for anything 
video-related in the gtk documentation.

Two things can happen at this point:

1. Gtk has a documentation page with a gtk-prefixed interface for a 
basic video widget, and a list of links to engines that implement that 
interface, and maybe a "which engine is right for me" document.

2. The potential developer finds nothing on gtk.org, and is faced with 
going off into the wilds of the internet in search of helix and bacon. 
He has to find these projects, deduce that they can be used to play 
video, and determine that they both integrate well with gtk.

I think there's a good chance that our developer will give up and bundle 
the SMIL presentation separately, hoping that the user will play the 
help file in a stand-alone player.

I think we can make multimedia widgets easier to use without bloating 
gtk. Having video in gtk will get it into more language bindings, more 
gui builders, and generally into the thinking of more software developers.

> I like the video widget idea, though. Are there any practical ideas yet?
> Are you intending to make it work similar to (e.g.) bacon, or will it
> just be a 'new' design, not based on anything?


The basics of our widget work like Bacon's. We differ in our advanced 
functionality, which is a reflection of the engines we are wrapping.

The widget is used in both our autotools-built gtk example player [2], 
and in our glade-based helix player [3].

[1] SMIL is like w3c-ized flash: http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/
[2] 
https://player.helixcommunity.org/source/browse/player/app/example/src/gtkplay.c?rev=1.2 

[3] https://player.helixcommunity.org/

-- 
Ryan Gammon
rgammon at real.com
Developer for Helix Player
https://player.helixcommunity.org