LiveCode 8 and a new video player?

[Richard Gaskin]

Mark Talluto wrote:

 > On Jun 4, 2015, at 12:37 PM, Mike Bonner wrote:
 >
 >> The key would (again) be to have things packaged so that the
 >> dependencies are installed as part of the processes, making
 >> it as easy as possible.
 >
 > This is what makes working with Linux for certain markets very
 > difficult. If LiveCode can make it all work with no more difficulty
 > than including and extension, then the toughest of markets will be
 > viable. If we have to do a series of appgets for an app designed for
 > knitting clubs, this is not going to be an easy sell.

Already sold: RunRev is committed to delivering a player object for all 
supported platforms.

The only question on the table is whether they need to write The 
Ultimate Multimedia Widget several months from now, or do a subset of 
the work sooner so we can ship stuff with it sooner.

Personally, I'm much happier with a less feature-rich implementation 
today than some imagined perfection at an unknowable date in the future. :)

As I said, I'm not sure of the specifics of their plan for Linux, so it 
would be helpful to learn more about which library/framework they intend 
to use.  Good ones are available under LGPL.

Many such frameworks integrate well with D-bus' MPRIS (Media Player 
Remote Interfacing Specification), the common interprocess messaging 
subsystem installed on most modern distros:
<http://specifications.freedesktop.org/mpris-spec/latest/fullindex.html>



To address your broader concern about the perceived difficulty of 
running multimedia in Linux, all I can say is try it and you'll see for 
yourself how far Linux has come today.

Out of the box Ubuntu can play a wide range of formats with its built in 
video player.

And if you've installed the additional codecs (Linux users know why 
that's a checkbox in the installer and to click it) you'll have good 
support for even more formats.

And if you forgot to include those during install, you can add them 
later at any time from the Software Center.

You can also install VLC from the Ubuntu Software Center, which includes 
even more support for a much wider range of codecs than Apple offers on 
OS X.

All without typing a single line in Terminal.

Sure, Linux is vast and varied, and those who've chosen Arch or Puppy 
Linux know exactly what they're doing and they expect to install 
additional packages to run a multimedia GUI.

But for consumer desktop distros like Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora, most of 
what they need is either already installed or just a click away.

After all, Ubuntu didn't get to an installed base of 40 million desktop 
users by making them all run bash commands in Terminal. :) Times have 
changed....

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Systems
  Software Design and Development for the Desktop, Mobile, and the Web
  ____________________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com                http://www.FourthWorld.com