[mythtv] MythWeb

[Thomas Mashos]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 9:33 AM, Michael T. Dean
<mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
> On 01/29/2014 11:59 AM, Steve Campbell wrote:
>>>
>>> The general idea is that the MythTV web interface will no longer be a
>>> separate web application that runs using PHP on Apache/nginx/lighttpd,
>>> but will be an integral part of the backend.  It will use the same code
>>> as the rest of MythTV (mythbackend and mythfrontend and ...) and will be
>>> available immediately upon starting mythbackend.  This has many benefits
>>> including
>>> a) eliminates the need to re-code MythTV logic (libraries and application
>>> logic) in a completely different programming language and application
>>> b) no need to keep redundant logic up to date with changes to MythTV (and
>>> no worries about the web interface being outdated compared to other
>>> applications), and
>>> c) *much* easier setup for users (no need to install and configure
>>> Apache/nginx/lighttpd and install and configure PHP (and set various memory
>>> sizes for PHP and ...).
>>
>>
>> Hmm. Lets look at those points
>> a) You should always use the best programming language for the job.
>> PHP is much easier to maintain/develop in than C++ (at least for PHP
>> devs!), and any good webapp will be making as much use of Javascript
>> as possible.
>
>
> I'd argue that the best language for the job is the language in which the
> code is already written and will continue to be written...  In other words,
> for any other language, we have to write the code twice, once in C++ with Qt
> framework for MythTV applications and once in "the best web language" for
> MythWeb.
>
>
>> b) The integral web interface and frontend seem way outdated compared to
>> Mythweb
>
>
> Um, how can brand new be outdated compared to "hasn't been touched, other
> than minor bug fixes, in a couple years"?
>
>
>> c) Is handled by the distribution package creators. There are good
>> arguments for keeping things modular.
>>
>> I really don't want to knock Stuart who is doing a great job, but
>> please don't kill off Mythweb just yet.
>
>
> Given that one accepts your argument that c) is irrelevant because of
> packages, users won't even notice a difference.  Or, more precisely, users
> of packaged distributions won't even notice a difference (other than seeing
> a much newer user interface) while self-compiling users will see a huge
> difference in ease of installation/configuration.
>
> Besides, MythTV users keep telling me that it's a waste to run a Window
> Manager that takes 300kB of RAM, so imagine the hails of glory when they
> find they don't have to run httpd and waste 7.2MB of RAM!  Besides, I'm also
> told that best practices say that you need to compile all software on your
> GNU/Linux system so that it doesn't include any capabilities you don't
> absolutely need (even if that means disabling functionality you may want or
> eventually need) because installing software/libraries on GNU/Linux--even if
> you don't execute the software or use the libraries--creates security
> problems.  (Okay, this whole paragraph is a farcical argument because I
> completely disagree with the assertions made in those arguments--that really
> do occur on the -users list.)
>
> The point, though, is that nothing will change from a user's
> perspective--save for seeing a new interface that includes significantly
> more functionality (most everything available to mythfrontend/mythbackend
> will be available for inclusion in the WebFrontend) as well as much more
> safety (much of the code in MythWeb is incorrect, because things have
> changed in MythTV and were never updated in MythWeb, and in some cases using
> parts of the MythWeb implementation, today, can actually cause data issues
> that may break functionality in MythTV).
>
> I don't know why so many people say, "Please don't kill of MythWeb."  This
> change should affect people as much as if Facebook were to announce, "Hey,
> everyone, we've started porting our Facebook server-side code from PHP (that
> sends HTML/JavaScript/CSS to the client) to Java (that will send
> HTML/JavaScript/CSS to the client)."  No one should care, as it's really
> only something that affects developers.
>
> Mike
>
>
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I surely can't be the first, but let me go ahead and say it. Please
kill off Mythweb. I'm tired of it breaking on every apache/php upgrade
and having different places for config files than the rest of mythtv
stuff.

Thanks,

Thomas Mashos