> -----Original Message----- > From: ffmpeg-devel <ffmpeg-devel-boun...@ffmpeg.org> On Behalf Of > James Almer > Sent: Saturday, July 4, 2020 5:37 PM > To: ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org > Subject: Re: [FFmpeg-devel] Project orientation > > Another thing worth mentioning is a lack of new blood. Despite participating > in GSoC for a long while, i can't name a student that stuck around after the > fact. Mind, there are new devs that started contributing for other reasons, > but perhaps not enough?
My time as a student is long gone. Over the years, I have seen a lot and done a lot of things as a developer. From my perspective, ffmpeg is one of the least attractive software projects for contributing, that I know. There are so many reasons, I don't even know where to start. Let's take this one: While writing this e-mail, I have to insert manual line breaks in order to adapt to how mails were written until the 1980ies. I cannot use bullet points or font formatting (e.g. to indicate code snippets). Communication via a mailing list is anachronistic. The world has changed and much better ways exist to communicate. The fact alone, that this mailing- list approach forces me to continuously read everything - including that sociopathic talk that is happening here as well, would be reason enough for me to walk away. With something like a forum or GitHub issues, I could not only step out of those conversations, but also better choose topics where I'm interested in and where not. And using patch files with plus and minus signs for collaborating on code changes? Really? It's not just that it would be a matter of taste - there are obvious shortcomings when comparing with modern ways, like that it's impossible to connect code and discussion about that code. Another problem is, that there is almost no connection to users of ffmpeg. The user mailing list is strictly separated and developers seem to be living inside some kind of bubble with little contact to those who are actually using ffmpeg. That's my impression at least. I'm sure there is one or the other who does differently. As a developer (without a well-known name) who wants to contribute a patch, things can be quite frustrating here. When that patch accidentally hits an area of one the very few who are caring and friendly - you're lucky. But otherwise, a patch will either be ignored or talked into infinity. I have a number of things to contribute, but after it didn’t work well with small things, I decided not to bother with the bigger ones. As an example, I gave my QuickSync/DX11 code to Intel, in order to let them deal with getting it merged, but even that didn't work out so far. AMD AMF hardware decoders are still missing. They had submitted something 1 or 2 years ago, but they didn't get any feedback and were discouraged to proceed. Windows Media Foundation HW acceleration has recently been merged, but the actual patch existed for several(!) years. Things running not really smooth here, a lot more progress could be made in some areas. I know, the project is community driven, but sometimes I think there is missing someone who is "in charge" of things and connects the many loose ends that exist. ----------------------------- I don't really have a problem with how things are. I accommodate, we got our own fork and platform builds and just do our changes there. This is my very personal view. People have different opinions (luckily), and I didn't write this to discuss all those points in detail or to initiate some change to the project. But when somebody starts wondering, why there aren't any new developers joining the project, one should maybe think about whether one or two of the things I listed above could be the reason... Kind regards, softworkz _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-devel mailing list ffmpeg-devel@ffmpeg.org https://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-devel To unsubscribe, visit link above, or email ffmpeg-devel-requ...@ffmpeg.org with subject "unsubscribe".