Am Dienstag, 23. September 2003 00:17 schrieb Derek Smithies: > <rant> > One of the goals of linux people the world over is to replace MS with > Linux. This is fine. Consequently, for linux to be usable by the masses, > things like cameras, programs, drivers etc have to be installed simply. > No requirements for fiddling around with new kernels, editing conf files, > building from source. > > It should be > rpm -Uvh gnomemeeting.rpm > gnomemeeting > > Now, cameras (usb ones in particular) are easy to install. Just plug it in. > Non usb camera may require a grabber card. > > You see - just plug it in and it goes. This is what the Microsoft > interface is aiming for. > > In the four years that I have been involved in openh323, reading the > list, helping people, > my view is the biggest pain in the ass is camera and sound. > > Buggy drivers, (drivers that fail to meet the spec) > Authors who say, my driver meets the spec - it works with xawtv. > This is a stupid and obnoxious comment. But unfortunately pwlib is not following the spec. The spec can be found in the kernel sources (for me, this is /usr/src/linux/Documentation/video4linux/API.html), and citing from it: --- | The minimum and maximum sizes listed for a capture device do not imply all | that all height/width ratios or sizes within the range are possible. A | request to set a size will be honoured by the largest available capture | size whose capture is no large than the requested rectangle in either | direction. For example the quickcam has 3 fixed settings. --- This means, the driver can choose any smaller size, as the maximum size may depend on other circumstances, as frame size or colour format ... Citing further: --- | A successful call to VIDIOCSWIN indicates that a suitable set of parameters | have been chosen. They do not indicate that exactly what was requested was | granted. The program should call VIDIOCGWIN to check if the nearest match | was suitable. --- So the correct solution is to ask for a size, see, what we get, and, in the case of pwlib, choose an appropriate converter. > STOP the crap software. fix the driver. make the driver meet the spec. > work harder. get it right. > > openh323 is criticised because it does not work. Why does openh323 not > work? Cause the driver writer did not do his/her job correctly. Sorry, IMHO pwlib is just not following the spec ... > I don't want to know about adding extra options to conf files. The default > option should always work. > > If linux video and sound drivers cannot work "out of the box", then there > is no hope of overtaking microsoft. > > Yes, I know that microsoft code has many drivers that "don't work right". > That is no excuse. > The goal for linux is for all drivers to work. > If we can achieve that goal, linux has a chance. > > </rant> > > > Derek. > > P.S. sorry for venting/ranting, but I am sick of substandard driver code. > it wastes so much developer time, getting applications to work with > buggy drivers. So lets just follow the specs (driver and application developers), so we can proof that something is wrong, making the life just easier for everyone. Greetings, Stefan PS: The proposed behaviour for drivers in case of inappropriate size request will be the same for v4l2! -- Stefan Brüns / Kastanienweg 6 - Zimmer 1206 / 52074 Aachen mailto:lurch gmx li http://www.kawo1.rwth-aachen.de/~lurchi/ phone: +49 241 169-4206 mobile: +49 160 7532733
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