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<P><B>In medias res</B></P>

<P>There are two major topics which always cause huge dispute and flame on the
  <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
  mailing list. Number one is the topic of the</P>


<P><A NAME="gcc"><B>GCC 2.96 series</B></A></P>

<P><B>The background:</B> The GCC <B>2.95</B> series is an official GNU release
  and version 2.95.3 of GCC is the most bug-free in that series.
  We have never noticed compilation problems that we could trace to gcc-2.95.3.
  Starting with Red Hat Linux 7.0, <B>Red Hat</B> included a heavily
  patched CVS version of GCC in their distribution and named it <B>2.96</B>. Red
  Hat included this version in the distribution because GCC 3.0 was not finished
  at the time, and they needed a compiler that worked well on all of their
  supported platforms, including IA64 and s390. The Linux distributor
  <B>Mandrake</B> also followed Red Hat's example and started shipping GCC 2.96
  with their Linux-Mandrake 8.0 series.</P>

<P><B>The statements:</B> The GCC team disclaimed any link with GCC 2.96 and
  issued an <A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/gcc-2.96.html">official response</A> to
  GCC 2.96. Many developers around the world began having problems with GCC 2.96,
  and started recommending other compilers. Examples are
  <A HREF="http://www.apachelabs.org/apr-mbox/200106.mbox/%3c20010623194228.C25512@ebuilt.com%3e">Apache</A>,
  <A HREF="http://www.mysql.com/downloads/mysql-3.23.html">MySQL</A>,
  <A HREF="http://avifile.sourceforge.net/news-old1.htm">avifile</A> and
  <A HREF="http://www.winehq.com/news/?view=92#RH 7.1 gcc fixes compiler bug">Wine</A>.
  Other interesting links are
  <A HREF="http://www.realtimelinux.org/archives/rtai/20017/0144.html">Real time Linux</A>,
  <A HREF="http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/rgooch/linux/docs/kernel-newsflash.html">
  Linux kernel news flash about kernel 2.4.17</A> and
  <A HREF="http://www.voy.com/3516/572.html">Voy Forum</A>.
  <B>MPlayer</B> also suffered from intermittent problems that were all solved by
  switching to a different version of GCC. Several projects started implementing
  workarounds for some of the 2.96 issues, but we refused to fix other people's
  bugs, especially since some workarounds may imply a performance penalty.</P>

<P>You can read about the other side of the story
  <A HREF="http://www.bero.org/gcc296.html">here</A>.
  GCC 2.96 does not allow | (pipe) characters in assembler comments
  because it supports Intel as well as AT&amp;T Syntax and the | character is a
  symbol in the Intel variant. The problem is that it <B>silently</B> ignores the
  whole assembler block. This is supposedly fixed now, GCC prints a warning instead
  of skipping the block.</P>

<P><B>The present:</B> Red Hat says that GCC 2.96-85 and above is fixed. The
  situation has indeed improved, yet we still see problem reports on our
  mailing lists that disappear with a different compiler. In any case it does not
  matter any longer. Hopefully a maturing GCC 3.x will solve the issue for good.
  If you want to compile with 2.96 give the <CODE>--disable-gcc-checking</CODE>
  flag to configure. Remember that you are on your own and <B>do not report any
  bugs</B>. If you do, you will only get banned from our mailing list because
  we have had more than enough flame wars over GCC 2.96. Please let the matter rest.</P>

<P>If you have problems with GCC 2.96, you can get 2.96-85 packages from the
  Red Hat <A HREF="ftp://updates.redhat.com">ftp server</A>, or just go for the
  3.0.4 packages offered for version 7.2 and later. You can also get gcc-3.1
  packages (unofficial, but working fine)
  <A HREF="ftp://people.redhat.com/jakub/gcc3/3.1-1/">here</A> and you can
  install them along the gcc-2.96 you already have. MPlayer will detect it and
  use 3.1 instead of 2.96. If you do not want to or cannot use the binary
  packages, here is how you can compile GCC 3.1 from source:</P>

<UL>
  <LI>Go to the <A HREF="http://gcc.gnu.org/mirrors.html">GCC mirrors page</A>
    page and download <CODE>gcc-core-3.1.tar.gz</CODE>.  This includes the
    complete C compiler and is sufficient for <B>MPlayer</B>. If you also want
    C++, Java or some of the other advanced GCC features
    <CODE>gcc-3.1.tar.gz</CODE> may better suit your needs.</LI>
  <LI>Extract the archive with<BR>
    <CODE>tar -xvzf gcc-core-3.1.tar.gz</CODE></LI>
  <LI>GCC is not built inside the source directory itself like most programs,
    but needs a build directory outside the source directory.  Thus you need to
    create this directory via<BR>
    <CODE>mkdir gcc-build</CODE></LI>
  <LI>Then you can proceed to configure gcc in the build directory, but you need
    the configure from the source directory:<BR>
    <CODE>cd gcc-build<BR>
    ../gcc-3.1/configure</CODE></LI>
  <LI>Compile GCC by issuing this command in the build directory:<BR>
    <CODE>make bootstrap</CODE></LI>
  <LI>Now you can install GCC (as root) by typing<BR>
    <CODE>make install</CODE></LI>
</UL>


<P><A NAME="binary"><B>Binary distribution of MPlayer</B></A></P>

<P>This was the second big problem but has been solved as of version
  0.90-pre1. <B>MPlayer</B> previously contained source from the OpenDivX project,
  which disallows binary redistribution. This code has been removed and you are now
  welcome to create binary packages as you see fit.</P>

<P>Another impediment to binary redistribution was compiletime optimizations
  for CPU architecture.  <B>MPlayer</B> now supports runtime CPU detection
  (specify the <CODE>--enable-runtime-cpudetection</CODE> option when
  compiling). It is disabled by default because it implies a small speed
  sacrifice, it is now possible to create binaries that run on different
  members of the Intel CPU family.</P>


<P><A NAME="nvidia"><B>nVidia</B></A></P>

<P>We dislike the fact that <A HREF="http://www.nvidia.com">nVidia</A>
  only provides binary drivers (for use with XFree86), which are often buggy.
  We have had many reports on
  <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
  about problems related to these closed-source drivers
  and their poor quality, instability and poor user and expert support.
  Here is an example from the
  <A HREF="http://www.nvnews.net/forum/showthread.php?s=fda5725bc2151e29453b2da3bd5d2930&amp;threadid=14306">
  nVidia Linux Forum</A>.
  Many of these problems/issues keep appearing repeatedly.
  We have been contacted by nVidia lately, and they said these bugs
  do not exist, instability is caused by bad AGP chips, and they received
  no reports of driver bugs (like the purple line). So if you have a
  problem with your nVidia card, you are advised to update the nVidia driver
  and/or buy a new motherboard or ask nVidia to supply open-source drivers.
  In any case, if you are using the nVidia binary drivers and facing driver related problems,
  please be aware that you will receive very little help from our side because we have
  little power to help in this matter.</P>


<P><A NAME="barr"><B>Joe Barr</B></A></P>

<P>Joe Barr became infamous by writing a less than favorable
  <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/1214.mplayer.html">
  <B>MPlayer</B> review</A>. He found <B>MPlayer</B> hard to install, but then
  again he is not very fond of
  <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-2000-06/lw-06-exam.html">reading documentation</A>.
  He also concluded that the developers were unfriendly and the documentation
  incomplete and insulting. You be the judge.
  He went on to mention <B>MPlayer</B> negatively in his
  <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2001/1227.predictions.html">10 Linux predictions for 2002</A>
  In a followup
  <A HREF="http://www.linuxworld.com/site-stories/2002/0125.xine.html">review of xine</A>
  he continued stirring up controversy. Ironically at the end of that article he
  quotes his exchange with G�nter Bartsch, the original author of xine, that
  perfectly summarizes the whole situation:</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  However, he also went on to say that he was "surprised" by my column about
  Mplayer and thought it was unfair, reminding me that it is a free software
  project. "If you don't like it," Bartsch said, "you're free not to use it."
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>He does not reply to our mails. His editor does not reply to our mails.
  Here are some quotes from different people about Joe Barr, so you can form your
  own opinion:</P>

<P>Marc Rassbach has <A HREF="http://daily.daemonnews.org/view_story.php3?story_id=2102">something to say</A>
  about the man.</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  You may all remember the LinuxWorld 2000, when he claimed that Linus T said
  that 'FreeBSD is just a handful of programmers'. Linus said NOTHING of the
  sort. When Joe was called on this, his reaction was to call BSD supporters
  assholes and jerks.
</BLOCKQUOTE>

<P>A <A HREF="http://www.mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/2001-December/009118.html">quote</A>
  from Robert Munro on the
  <A HREF="http://mplayerhq.hu/pipermail/mplayer-users/">mplayer-users</A>
  mailing list:</P>

<BLOCKQUOTE>
  <P>He's interesting, but not good at avoiding, um... controversy.  Joe Barr
    used to be one of the regulars on Will Zachmann's Canopus forum on Compuserve,
    years ago.  He was an OS/2 advocate then (I was an OS/2 fan too).<P>

  <P>He used to go over-the-top, flaming people, and I suspect he had some hard
    times, then. He's mellowed some, judging by his columns recently.  Moderately
    subtle humor was not his mode in those earlier days, not at all.</P>
</BLOCKQUOTE>

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author	diego
date	Sun, 11 Aug 2002 18:27:38 +0000
parents	3274d0725fde
children	3bc485948088