[gst-devel] GStreamer in KDE

[Brett Kosinski]

> Hi guys --
>
> There's been really a lot of talk lately about the future of GStreamer in KDE.
> It's been pretty clear that it's been gaining mindshare in both the KDE
> community at large and specifically with the multimedia developers.
>
> I'll be working next weekend to update the GStreamer bindings to 0.8, but I
> think this may not be necessary.
>
> I'd like to propose that GStreamer be ported from glib over to Qt / C++, but
> keep the name GStreamer.  I think this would provide a base that would
> appease both the GNOME and KDE communities -- by having the name GStreamer
> and a group of GNOME developers active in its development it would fit
> comfortably within the ranks of GNOME software, but by using Qt / C++ it
> would be able to take advantage of the advantages of C++ for object oriented
> development while working within a stable and comfortable object framework.
>
> Benjamin seems particularly enthusiastic and has already taken the initiative
> to start by working on kiosrc and seems to be very pleased with the ease of
> development in a Qt-based framework.  I've been helping out and I think
> within a few days we'll have a pretty good example of the direction that such
> a port would take us.
>
> Thoughts?

Umm, well, I'm no core developer, but off the top of my head, I'm thinking
what you're proposing is lunacy.

First off, you can't just "port" Gstreamer to C++/Qt.  Gstreamer is
fundamentally tied to C/Glib, whether you like it or not.  In order to use
C++/Qt, you'd more or less have to rewrite Gstreamer, something which, I
suspect, not everyone is particularly keen on.

Second, how on earth can you think that GNOME would suddenly support the
idea of using Qt/C++ just because Gstreamer does?  GNOME ain't *that* tied
to Gstreamer.  IMHO, GNOME is far more likely to ditch Gstreamer and find
another multimedia API.  Why?  Because they're going to have to rewrite
their apps, anyway, in order to make use of your new Gstreamer++, so they
might as well just switch libraries (like using xinelib, for example)...
at least, then, they don't have to switch languages, too.

Frankly, I'm beginning to wonder if this is a troll.  It's so completely
outlandish... wait, HIBT?

Brett.