[MPlayer-dev-eng] new gui

[Paul TT]

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 16:32:13 -0300
"Reynaldo H. Verdejo Pinochet" <reynaldo at opendot.cl> wrote:

> I'm voluntering to work on a new gui for mp, trying to work
> with the actual gui code is completely out of the question
> for reasons im sure most of the devs that had ever taked
> a look there know. I'll like to hear any suggestions you
> may had to make sure they get discussed before I start working
> on it.
> 
> In the mean time, and just to make this (hope not to be
> flame war) discussion started i have some questions:

eheheh
i'm answering you before having read all the thread, to give clearer
toughts, if something to talk on, i'll answer to the answer given to you
by others.....

MHO is that if a new gui must and will be written, it should be a
separated gui, which uses -slave mode for everything...
the pros are:
. one can update mplayer and recompile it also w/out rebuilding the
  graphical counterpart...
. the gui will become only an installation, not a compilation, choice
. it's more portable, and easy to mantain, i think.
. it can be uploaded on the site, and downloaded by many people, same
  version, same look, skin looking the same way for everyone, and one
  doesn't have to have strange libs to compile against. it's compiled
  standalone and wow-you've-got-it, then you can change mplayer version
  under it, too :-)
. the sam way, the best would be to have a little gui foer every os out
  there, but the chaos in the code coming from this, would be too great
  i think, and we would need to have separate people working on that. if
  one (ehehe reynaldo, yes, you) will be in charge in mantaining the
  code, i think it will be easier.


> - Is this needed at all, or is just me thinking the actual code
>   is far from perfect?
not needed at all. but far from perfect too ;-)

> - Is gtk the only and *best* choice for this?
not the only surely. mh, it could be the best since look as it's
portable. but why not qt4???? (it's osx, linux and win gpl'ed)

> - Is there any good reason why not to make the new gui use
>   slave mode for most of his tasks?
see above :-)
i'm thinking about the situation in which the distro builder give out a
mplayer package, and a gmplayer package. you could rebuild your own
mplayer binary, and continue to use gmplayer you currently use....


> - Is making the gui themable (on top of what desktop/wm themes
>   offer) a priority?
looking at all the skins out there, i think it should. not the highest,
but surely it is :-)
and the best would be a parser which take care of the existing skins, or
which translate them to new format if it there will be one 

hope to have gievn you some valuable hint :-)
bye, PaulTT