[mythtv-users] easiest way to go from storage groups internal player to mplayer

[Michael T. Dean]

On 05/17/2010 06:07 PM, Travis Tabbal wrote:
> I really wish they would consider leaving external players available 
> as an option for those that use them though. It seems odd to take the 
> functionality away with the exception that SGs don't work with 
> external players.

It seems odd?

It seems odd that we don't want to write each and every new feature that 
involves playback once for external players and once for Internal player?

It seems odd that we don't want to write each and every new feature that 
involves playback once for local files and once for Storage Groups?

It seems odd that we don't want to write image download code once for 
local files and once for Storage Groups?

It seems odd that we don't want to test every new feature or bug fix or 
enhancement that involves playback once for local files and once for 
Storage Groups, and once for external players and once for Internal 
player, and--potentially--once for each combination? [1]

It seems odd that even if we did want to write and test 2x the code for 
every new feature, we don't want to have to maintain 2x the code? [2]

Just because code is written doesn't mean keeping it costs nothing.  In 
order to improve MythTV and plugins, we need to get rid of some of the 
dead weight/baggage that's holding back progress.  At least, that's my 
perspective.  (And I haven't even mentioned the increased complexity of 
configuration for users and the increased difficulty in helping users 
troubleshoot issues and figuring out the configuration the users were 
using when they encounter issues and ...)

Mike

[1] Since we'll have multiple code paths, each change requires testing 
each code path for the effects of the changes.

[2] More code, more complexity, more time required to find the source of 
the bugs/issues that users report.