Yes, I agree. On the long run this is the way to go.
On the other hand I would like to keep the current (= master/2.1)
SoundSourceM4A based on FAAD2 on Linux until the quality and performance of
SoundSourceFFmpeg is at least comparable. This also applies to
SoundSourceMP3 based on libMAD even if it is not a plugin. Both SoundSources
might be based on "legacy" libraries, but have become very stable and
reliable recently. I do not recommend to drop them without an adequate
replacement.
On 12/09/2015 06:30 PM, RJ Ryan wrote:
Summary: the plugin systems have never been used for the purpose they were
designed for. Let's delete them.
The SoundSource plugins system comes from a time where we we very nervous
about competing when others were offering M4A support and we were
hamstrung on how to do so legally. Times have changed and nearly all the
platforms we support have built-in M4A support. When we drop XP/Vista
support then we will be able to use MediaFoundation on all Windows builds.
FFMPEG support coming on Linux will allow us to use the distro's support
for M4A.
Our VAMP plugin support hard-codes the use of the plugins to match the way
libmixxxminimal.so is built. The dream of being able to use 3rd-party VAMP
plugins is essentially non-existent. We would also gain slightly in
performance as it would remove various layers that the data has to pass
through between the plugin that calculates the analysis and the data
getting into Mixxx proper.
As a refresher, here's how/where users get M4A support today:
Windows XP: No
Windows Vista: Yes, with SP1 (or was it SP2?) via MediaFoundation
Windows 7+: Yes, MediaFoundation
OS X: yes, CoreMedia
Linux, built from source: yes when built with faad=1
Linux, Ubuntu PPA: Yes?
Linux, Debian repositories: No -- disabled by maintainer intentionally per
Debian policy.
The future of Linux support here is FFMPEG -- so eventually we'll be in a
spot where the user can add M4A support by installing the right FFMPEG
package in their system.
After XP support is gone, nothing changes here as a result of this change.
In my opinion, all of this code is essentially technical debt. We could
merge all the plugins into Mixxx proper and be no worse off -- and much
better off from a maintenance and code health perspective. Plus we don't
have to worry about ABI compatibility in the SoundSource system (which we
have not been that good at).
So let's do that. Thoughts?
RJ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today
http://mixxx.org
Mixxx-devel mailing list
Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today
http://mixxx.org
Mixxx-devel mailing list
Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel
