[Kwintv] Channel format plugins questions

[Zsolt Rizsanyi]

On Tuesday 29 July 2003 22.28, Dirk Ziegelmeier wrote:
> Hi,
>
> the purpose of the channel format plugins is not completely clear to me.
>
> - Are there seriously people wo use two TV programs such that they want to
> share config files between those programs? If so, how often is there a need
> to reconfigure the channels? In Germany, we have about 35 cable TV
> channels, a change to one or two of them occurs once in about every two
> years. I personally can live with reconfiguring two apps every two years.
>
> - Common channel plugins would only make sense if they contain absolutely
> the same information. The more plugins we have, the smaller the common
> base. What if we want to store channels per device? Do all other apps
> support that? Our private XML format does.
>
> - What is CSV format good for? It's less flexible than XML and does not
> offer any more functionality. If there is no other program using it, I
> suggest removal.

csv format can be used to export the channel in a format that is the most 
accessible.
With hand or a script everybody can convert it to any format that is not 
supported by qtvision.

> - I think the channel storage shouldn't be a plugin. We should use XML, it

I dont see the reason why it shouldn't be a plugin. Plugins are most suited 
for functionality like this.

> the most flexible. What we should have is a menu like
> Channels->Import->[xawtv, zapping, kwintv], but I think we have no need to
> be able to save these configs.

You are right. xml format is the preferred one with qtvision. Others are 
mostly used for import or export.
Channel file import is very important feature. I hope you dont deny that :)
Export is hopefully not that important, but we need to have them to be fair 
with our users...

> Background: I've posted a change that adds a property to channels (source)
> that makes adoption of all plugins necessary. I've patched csv and xml, but
> George asked me to patch the other as well. This is a major pain for me
> since I have none of the other apps installed, and I know that at least the
> old kwintv doesn't compile on my box.
>
> Please don't get me wrong, I don't want to sound harsh, it's just that
> these changes are a lot of work for me and I doubt that anyone is really
> interested in having them. This is why I would like to know the reasons why
> we have and maintain these features.

If it is really a lot of work, than IMHO you can avoid some of it.
What is important IMO is to have the csv format export work with all data 
available.
For the all other channel full support for all qtvision features is not even 
always possible so it should be done only if it is not too much work.

For zapping I would say (looking at a zapping config file), that it is not 
possible to parse the device source correctly. So you can ignore it.
That is: it would be enough to only add read support for xawtv format (because 
it is read only anyway).
And read write support for kwintv. If that is a problem for you than hopefully 
somebody will help you out :)

Regards
Zsolt


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