Brad,

   I am seeing a lot of synergy actually. You do the audio tidy up, Blake
does tools and doco, Dean does some very cool low level stuff which I sure
forms the basis of a bunch of later work (i.e. better algorithms for OGG,
etc than straight ports of "C"), Yoshiki, Martin and others do video, I
handle file formats (with lots of help :) and the others test.

 

The main things I see happening from here that we need to resolve ASAP are a
bunch of questions. 

What do people see as the interfaces?

What have others seen in a multimedia framework? Is there a good one we can
steal, I mean be influenced by.

What are the lowest common denominators?

What functionality does everyone want?

 

Just as an example what about these?

aURI playVideo

aURI playAudio

aURI play        "uses a specific player based on the file type"

aURI edit        "opens a specific editor based on the file type"

aURI editAudio          "opens an audio editor on just the audio stream of
the file"

 

When we figure out where we want to get to, we can work out how to get
there.

 

As for the question below, yes I am interested in re-useability, something
that everyone raves about for OO and Smalltalk but something that Squeak is
very bad at doing in practice. 

I am not a "programmer" although I program ;) so I will write code for the
framework. I already have a simple MM framework but I need some help with
the design, I am not experienced enough to know which are the better OO ways
of doing things.

 

Russell

 

  _____  

From: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org
[mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] On Behalf Of Brad
Fuller
Sent: Friday, 25 February 2005 12:52 PM
To: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
Subject: Re: Improving Squeak's Multimedia - Part 2 Followup

 

Brad Fuller wrote:



==== Attack Plan 
Finally, I propose that we decide on what to tackle and how to do it. 

>From a bird's eye view, we might look at 3 distinct phases (not necessarily
linear in order - can be approached simultaneously): 

   * Review/Discuss/Plan/Fix existing classes (which hopefully fix 
     existing tools/apps) 
   * Discuss-Design/Plan/Enhance existing classes 
   * Discuss-Design/Plan/Add new capabilities: new classes, tools and 
     end-user applications. 

And, are you interested in helping? 

As mentioned in my msg, I'm interested in mainly fixing and enhancing the
audio base classes, first. 

>From the comments so far, we don't a clear winner -- not any particular
area that everyone feels compelled to work on. Nothing jumps out at me.
Anything jump out at you?

Here's what I have so far:

Blake Watson

Interests:

I'd like to see an equalizer. I think it'd also be cool if Squeak could be
used to teach orchestration/composition. And video editing. 

Commitment:

My  contributions would most likely be: I can test, I can document, and I
can  build end-user stuff. 

 

Martin Kuball

Interests:

IMHO Squeak already has a lot of things we can use. But they need to be
better integrated, polished up a little bit and bundled with some nice
interface classes.

Commitment:

?

 

Russell Penny

Interests:

My main interest is making sure I can use any format I want in any of the
tools that will be designed.
Commitment:

I have been collecting format specification documents for a while now and am
more than happy to help in that area.

 

Dean Swan

Interests:

1. Audio 

        A. MIDI 

        B. Synthesis 

                1) FM 

                2) Subtractive 

                3) Additive 

                4) Voice/Speech 

        C. Recording/Editing 

                1) Filtering (Simple and Adaptive) 

                2) Sample Rate Conversion 

                3) Effects (i.e. Reverb, Delay, Phasing, Flanging, Dynamics,


                         Pitch Modification, Time Stretching, etc.) 

2. Video 

        A. Compression 

                1) Vector Quantization 

        B. Streaming 

        C. Editing 

                1) Colorspace Conversion 

                2) Scaling 

                3) Compositing 

 

Commitment:

The majority of my experience is with audio DSP and anything related, so
that's where I can probably contribute the most. 
Vector Quantization is something I have explored quite extensively on my own


 

 

Steve Elkins

Interests:

I'm more interested in (forming a
better understanding of) Squeak's ability to integrate various media. I want
to record stories and have her illustrate them, like narrated slide shows.
I also want to set stories to music.

Commitment:

Testing and using for now.

 

Brian Vukmer

Commitment:

I'm interested in being a tester.

 

Yoshiki Ohshima

Interests:

Adding MPEG4 to Squeak
Commitment:

My thought now is to write an equivalent of mp4player in Squeak, and
call MPEG4IP library as plugin.

 
Brad Fuller
Interests:
Audio/Music
Commitment:
Help plan/code/test current audio base classes (need defn of what those are,
which I can do).
I will test, too.

 

No response (yet!) from:

Craig Latta 

Mark McCahill 

Juan Vuletich 

Cornelius Huber 


========================
We have 3 that have volunteered their time to test. Thanks! That is very
important.

We don't quite have a quorum on what they would test, though ;-) 
But, I didn't think we would yet. 

We also don't have a count on who would actually code.

First things first: from the replies, I see the following MM items of
interest and at least one person is interested in writing/editing/enhancing
code (and I'm sure I missed something, so please fire away and let's add it
to the list):
* Fix/enhance existing audio classes - could include the current
soundrecorder/player tools
* Add MPEG 4 player.
* Dean has a lot of interests! It would help if you could prioritize. Will
you help code?
* Russell is looking at this from a MM usability/re-use POV (right?).  In
addition to OGG.
* Martin feels that Squeak has a lot going for it already -- just needs
cleaning/polishing and a new suit. Can you be more specific and what you
feel needs cleaning up and what you would help with?

I certainly believe that people well feel compelled to help if they see a
clear personal benefit. Finding the flag we can rally around is the
difficult part -- especially since we are doing this for free and we are not
working in the same timezones (however, round-the-clock programming can be
productive and fun if organized right.)

Hey, we're getting closer. Looks darn good to me!

When I have more comments, I'll put out Part 3 (i know... i know... you just
can't wait...)

brad

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