Dear DVB gurus,http://www.linuxtv.org/ http://www.linuxstb.org/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/dvbtools/ http://www.linux-dvb.tv/ http://www.cadsoft.de/people/kls/vdr/ http://jemmari.tky.hut.fi/dvb/libdvb-0.0.1.tar.gz These URLs are the main sites where one can get some source code or documentation about DVB and VDR. It's a lot I think. This is kind of a typical disease for OpenSource projects. Let's say I want to make some development. Where should I start with?? First Scenario: using kernel drivers directly First the makefile should decide where the include files are coming from. All the programs I looked at are including <linux/dvb/something.h>, and something like -I../DVB/include must be written in the makefile. Is that right?? It would be nicer to have a link /usr/include/linux/dvb pointing to /usr/local/DVB/include/linux/dvb. This link should be installed by 'make install' in DVB/driver. Then I need to determine if the driver is a normal one, or a NEWSTRUCT/HEAD one. How??? The program can look in /dev, and then start trying if /dev/ost/something is working, the same for /dev/dvb/*. Other ideas?? Should my program load and unload the modules itself? Second scenario: I need a wrapper for this work, I want a lib Ok, now let's look for a library that could do this work once for everybody. Should I use the libdvb bundled with the driver, even if I don't want C++? Should I use the very promising libdvb from Juha? Or maybe the libdtv in VDR, or even some hacks of dvbtools, or something else??? I'm very puzzled. What we need is a central library that can evolve with the capabilities of the driver. It should be possible to compile the lib once and use any kind of newer or older version of the modules with it. The lib should find the correct device and determine which capabilities are implemented or not. Of course limited to the capabilities known at the time of writing the lib. We should have only one file to include, something like <dvb.h>. The lib should also propose some functions for parsing DVB data. Third scenario: I give up, give me some ready code. If I want to download or release some code, something like a plugin for VDR, or a simple dvb tool, where should I look?? Should I open a new web-site for new code?? To begin with, look at the driver. The last and official version is the branch HEAD in CVS. So I need CVS, why not. If I look around, I can find other more or less stable versions to download. Some of them are called siemens-dvb*, some dvb*, or DVB*. Very strange names. What is new, what not, can I find HEAD without CVS?? Why not?? What is the future of the old version? Then the tools, the dvbtools project is a good start on SourceForge, but no file released. The site linuxtv.org does also provide a CVS repository, why not there?? What about VDR and the plugins, why maintaining a parallel site, without CVS?? etc etc etc The work around DVB and VDR is absolutely amazing. I do really want to make a (small) contribution. But I don't want to re-invent the wheel. I could have started a long time ago, but every week I'm discovering new projects, new sites. A web ring is not the solution. Please, dear developers, make your comments. I know I'm not the only one disturbed by this senseless work distribution?? Looks like KDE/Gnome. Maybe it is the time to cool down, to stop coding and to start organizing this great stuff. Regards ben -- Info: To unsubscribe send a mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe linux-dvb" as subject.
