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190 lines
6.8 KiB
XML
190 lines
6.8 KiB
XML
<sect1 id="chapter-general">
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<title id="title-general">General</title>
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<qandaset>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-media-player">
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<para>Is GStreamer a media player ?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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No, GStreamer is a development framework for creating applications like
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media players, video editors, streaming media broadcasters and so on.
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That said, very good media players can easily be built on top
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of GStreamer and we even include a simple yet functional media player
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with GStreamer, called gst-player.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-why-c">
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<para>
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Why is GStreamer written in C ? Why not C++/Objective-C/... ?
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</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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We like C. Aside from "personal preference", there are a number of technical
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reasons why C is nice in this project:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>C is extremely portable.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>C is fast.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>It is easy to make language bindings for libraries written in C.
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>The GObject object system provided by GLib implements objects in C,
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in a portable, powerful way. This library provides for introspection and
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runtime dynamic typing. It is a full OO system, but without the syntactic
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sugar. If you want sugar, take a look at
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<ulink url="http://www.5z.com/jirka/gob.html">GOB</ulink>.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Use of C integrates nicely with Gtk+ and GNOME. Some people like
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this a lot, but neither Gtk+ nor GNOME are required by GStreamer.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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<para>
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So, in closing, we like C. If you don't, that's fine; if you still want to
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help out on GStreamer, we always need more language binding people. And if
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not, don't bother us; we're working :-)
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-applications">
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<para>What applications are available for GStreamer ?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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GStreamer is still very early in its development, but already we see some
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really nice applications being developed in parallel with GStreamer.
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Both gst-player and gst-editor are very closely linked to GStreamer itself
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for obvious reasons.
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For a list of some of the more advanced projects, look at the list
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in our <ulink url="http://gstreamer.net/status/">Status table</ulink>.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-licensing">
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<para>
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What are the exact licensing terms for GStreamer and its plugins ?
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</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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All of GStreamer, including our own plugin code, is licensed under the
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<ulink url="http://www.gnu.org/licenses/lgpl.html">GNU LGPL</ulink> license.
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Some of the libraries we use for some of the plugins are however under the
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GPL, which means that those plugins can not be used by a non-GPL-compatible
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application.
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</para>
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<para>
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As part of the GStreamer source download you find a file called
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license_README. That file contains information in the exact licensing
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terms of the libraries we use. As a general rule, GStreamer aims at using
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only LGPL or BSD licensed libraries if available and only use GPL or
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proprietary libraries where no good LGPL or BSD alternatives are available.
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</para>
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<para>
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From GStreamer 0.4.2 on, we implemented a license field for all of the plugins,
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and in the future we might have the application enforce a stricter policy
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(much like tainting in the kernel).
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-sound-server">
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<para>Is GStreamer a sound server ?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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No, GStreamer is not a soundserver. GStreamer does however have plugins
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supporting most of the major soundservers available today, including
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ESD, aRTSd, and to some extent Jack. Support for MAS is also planned.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-platforms">
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<para>
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Will GStreamer be available for platforms other than Unix ?
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</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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Depends. Our main target is the Unix platform. That said, interest has been
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expressed in porting GStreamer to other platforms and the GStreamer core
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team will gladly accept patches to accomplish this.
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Please refer to the
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<ulink url="http://gstreamer.net/status/?category=7">
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platform support status table</ulink>
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-gnome">
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<para>What is GStreamer's relationship with the GNOME community ?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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While GStreamer is operated as an independent project, we do have a close
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relationship with the GNOME community. Many of our hackers consider
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themselves also to be members of the GNOME community. There are plans to
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make (some part of) GStreamer an official part of the development framework
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of GNOME. This does not exclude use of GStreamer by other communities at
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all, of course.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-kde">
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<para>What is GStreamer's relationship with the KDE community ?</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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The GStreamer community wants to have as good a relationship as possible
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with KDE, and we hope that someday KDE decides to adopt GStreamer as their
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multimedia API, just like the GNOME community plans on doing.
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There have been contacts from time to time between the GStreamer community
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and KDE and we do already have support for the aRTSd sound server used by KDE.
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Also, some of the KDE hackers have created Qt bindings of GStreamer
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and made a simple video player.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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<qandaentry>
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<question id="general-my-application">
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<para>
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I'm considering adding GStreamer output to my application...
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</para>
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</question>
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<answer>
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<para>
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That doesn't really make sense. GStreamer is not a sound server, so you don't
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output directly to GStreamer, and it's not an intermediate API between
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audio data and different kinds of audio sinks. It is a fundamental design
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decision to use GStreamer in your app; there are no easy ways of somehow
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'transfering' data from your app to GStreamer. Instead, your app would have
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to use or implement a number of GStreamer elements, string them together, and
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tell them to run. In that manner the data would all be internal to the
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GStreamer pipeline.
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</para>
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<para>
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That said, it is possible to write a plugin specific to your app that can get
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at the audio data.
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</para>
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</answer>
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</qandaentry>
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</qandaset>
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</sect1>
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