[HN Gopher] FFmpeg 5.0
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       FFmpeg 5.0
        
       Author : _Gyan_
       Score  : 80 points
       Date   : 2022-01-14 20:17 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | j1elo wrote:
       | Cutting releases of such a huge project with so many moving
       | pieces, sub-projects, and dependencies, must be quite an effort!
       | 
       | This "5.0 release" thread in the official mailing list shows that
       | they are trying to establish a "feature freeze" process in order
       | to have a clear cut point where a release branch is made:
       | 
       | http://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2022-January/290665...
       | 
       | (yes that's the beginning of the thread... I guess the
       | conversation drifted naturally from some previous patch
       | discussion, until the point someone decided to change the email
       | subject)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | shmerl wrote:
       | Why is ffmpeg still using Trac for bug reports? Switching to
       | Gitlab would make it a lot more pleasant to deal with.
        
         | bryanrasmussen wrote:
         | don't know Trac, but can you import your history from it into
         | Gitlab?
        
           | shmerl wrote:
           | Haven't looked into it, but in the worst case making some
           | custom tool would do it.
        
             | bryanrasmussen wrote:
             | Ok maybe, but maybe the devs wouldn't feel that was that
             | great a user of their time which might already be limited
             | by other obligations.
             | 
             | But I guess someone else has already done it
             | https://451.sh/post/tracboat/
        
         | throwaway984393 wrote:
         | Most open source projects stick with the same system they
         | started with. Don't fix what ain't broke.
        
           | shmerl wrote:
           | Except it is broke. I'm not motivated to deal with Trac even
           | if I want to submit a bug report.
           | 
           | So the above argument is not addressing the situation. Making
           | bug reporting a better experience is in the interest of the
           | project.
           | 
           | I find Debian bug reports a similarly annoying experience
           | becasue it's so archaic. I.e. I deal with it, but I can
           | totally understand if someone is turned off by the experience
           | and simply avoids reporting bugs because of it.
        
             | dmw_ng wrote:
             | Making code contribution a better experience is in the
             | interests of the project, making it easier to report bugs
             | is not such a clear win. Consumption-centric interactions
             | are a modern concept originally popularized by the
             | structure of the GitHub UI. Gamifying project popularity
             | and making it easy for users to report bugs nobody is
             | paying to have fixed has almost nothing to do with the
             | actual task of developing software, although (cough) both
             | are convenient if your primary use of open source is as a
             | marketing tool.
             | 
             | I'm sure Marshall McLuhan would have a few things to say
             | about GitHub if he were alive today.
        
               | shmerl wrote:
               | Elitist approach to bug reporting is wrong, at least
               | that's my opinion. Unless project maintainers indeed
               | don't care about bug reports and just do whatever. But
               | then it's more arrogance than actual benefit to the user.
               | 
               | I think more projects suffer from under reporting of bugs
               | than from too many bugs reported.
               | 
               | And if no one is fixing bugs, then the above doesn't
               | matter anyway.
        
               | mataug wrote:
               | Given the limited resource at the disposal of an open
               | source project team, they need to pick their battles
               | carefully to produce the most value with the least
               | resources.
               | 
               | For a mature project such as FFmpeg, migrating to a new
               | bug tracking system may produce some value to a small set
               | of people who are reporting bugs, but for the vast
               | majority of FFmpeg users, it produces no value.
               | 
               | So in this particular case it seems like they are willing
               | to sacrifice the convenience of a small subset of users
               | in the interest of the whole user community.
               | 
               | This applies to many mature and long running projects.
        
               | shmerl wrote:
               | They can choose whatever priorities of course, but I'd
               | disagree that it's not impacting anyone besides a small
               | portion of the users. Discouraging bug reports reduces
               | quality for everyone.
               | 
               | Those who report bugs might be a smaller portion, but
               | projects need them I'd argue way more than those who use
               | and never report anything to them.
        
               | dmw_ng wrote:
               | I'd encourage browsing their Trac for context.. the
               | handful of regular contributors definitely don't need any
               | extra bug reporters
        
               | camgunz wrote:
               | You're being really ungenerous here, saying their bug
               | tracking system is "broken", their use of it is
               | "elitist", they "don't care about bug reports" and
               | they're guilty of "arrogance". I don't think you can
               | substantiate any of this just from the fact that they use
               | Trac.
               | 
               | You (well, maybe not you, but one) can also imagine all
               | kinds of counter-arguments (not that I know if any of
               | these are true or not):
               | 
               | - Devs would rather spend their time on development
               | 
               | - No one is inspired to move the system over
               | 
               | - They have automations or conventions built on Trac
               | 
               | - Their super users (prolific users, testers, and
               | engineers) are all used to Trac
               | 
               | - People use RSS feeds (Trac has lots of RSS feeds) to
               | stay informed or build other tools, which would all have
               | to be migrated and might have incompatible formats
               | 
               | I encourage you to be more open-minded about the way
               | others choose to work. We shouldn't overemphasize
               | homogeneity in work processes. I also encourage you to be
               | more generous with the words you choose.
        
       | terhechte wrote:
       | In 2003 or 2004 I had a job doing video installations with Linux
       | systems in a variety of museums. That was the first time I
       | learned about FFMpeg. Used it for everything, still one of the
       | first things I install on any system, and whenever I need to do
       | anything with video conversion or resizing or taking a slice out,
       | I use FFMpeg. It is awesome.
       | 
       | Although, after all these years I still have to look up every
       | single incantation except for the most basic things.
        
       | gregoriol wrote:
       | So... what is so much different about it from 4.x?
        
         | mig39 wrote:
         | Did you click the link?
        
           | gregoriol wrote:
           | I did, but none of those lines in the changelog mean anything
           | to me, none look like important or major, because I'm not a
           | specialist of this project, so from this link I don't know
           | what makes the change from 4.x to 5.0, but I'd like to know,
           | I use FFmpeg from time to time, and I'm genuinely curious
           | 
           | Could you explain what you did see in that link in a few
           | simple words?
        
           | Youden wrote:
           | Not the parent but the link is quite opaque. I'd really like
           | it if someone more familiar with the project could explain
           | what these changes mean, which ones are exciting and why and
           | whether there were any interesting challenges that were
           | overcome.
        
             | fmorel wrote:
             | Indeed. At work, I find that doing a little bit of curation
             | on the merged PRs makes for more much readable & relevant
             | release notes.
        
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       (page generated 2022-01-14 23:02 UTC)