I am pretty dissatisfied with all the available media players, and I was also looking for a major project to really get into programming. so I am thinking of writing my own media player . Or to be more accurate a gui-frontend for mplayer (something similar to smplayer). How hard would this be.? I have plenty of time (months), and am willing to learn anything.
I practically don't have any knowledge of any windows/gui libraries . My programming experience : tried lots of different languages, wrote a couple of websites in php, lots of practice in java (although did nothing major) . Thats all
Can someone provide some guidance, about where to get started. what all to read. Which language should be used. is C#/.net a good language for this? since I am no expert in any language and have dabbled in plenty of different languages , I think I can pick up any language. Though My main concern is my lack of any practical knowledge . So guide me please.
Lastly my preference is windows (haha whatever), so thats what my target is and thats where I'll doing my coding.
To sum it up I want to create a guifrontend for mplayer that would work in windows.
Thanks
Edit: by mplayer I mean mplayer (the linux one) , and not WIndows media player.
One good place to start could be looking at how the code for gmplayer works - gmplayer is the graphic frontend for mplayer on Linux. It could be that all you really need to do is port the gmplayer code to Windows, then you get a fully integrated GUI instead of just a frontend.
Also, feature request: a nice friendly UI for putting video / audio effects on the output stream (it is so hard to use in the CLI version that most mplayer users probably don't even know it is in there).
I know what I'm going to recommend you is not what you're looking for, BUT:
I'd create a front-end for VLC, which uses Qt, a GUI framework which is extremely usable and easy to start with, in C++.
From my experience as an user, VLC is also more stable and has more features.
Start by copying a working implementation. As you mentioned, SMPlayer exists as a working example of what you want. I'd recommend starting by either hacking it to work better (the playlist really needs more intuitive controls, and multiple monitor support in Windows was nonexistent last time I tried it) or trying to duplicate it in your language of choice.
The benefits of hacking on an existing probject include: the existing codebase works, the margin of work required to make a noticeable change is much smaller, and the existing developers are able to help you come to speed with internals. Also, learning the project's language (C++) would be useful, though it may not be worth the effort if it's more interesting to copy its features in your favorite language.
C# is great for creating any desktop gui quickly. Best way to start with the gui design is to play a bit with the drag/drop components available in visual studio. For the functionality you can use this: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd564585%28VS.85%29.aspx .
Related
What is the good and efficient language to develop a video streaming application using Gstreamer + gtk+ ??
The application which we developed has to do things notify the user whenever the some uneven behaviour occured where we are looking into...
Any suggestions will be useful.....
Thanks in advanceš
Of course depends on your liking and what else you need and want to do in the application. Since you are Gtk and Linux I would recommend to look at Vala:
https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/Vala
I made a proof of concept app with that at some time to watch Twitch.tv streams:
https://github.com/fzwoch/twit-twat
Maybe take a look if you are fine with the ease and look of the language for your purpose.
No troll intended, but Vala looks like a dead end for most people I talk to. It's a specific language that never caught outside of GNOME, and I'm not sure it has the brightest future.
Rust seems to get wider adoption but seems still at an early age, still usable though, even for GStreamer use.
Python is both adopted, simple, and has stable bindings.
If you prefer a compiled language, C++ and GTKmm would be a possibility too, but at this point, depending on your requirements, and assuming you're not afraid of the moving ecosystem, Rust might still be a better choice.
I want to make simple app that edit my virtual reality videos.How can i get started? I have some programming knowledge (C#, C++,Unity) I am looking for basic editing operations.For example changing background of the video,cropping video.
i did some research on Google but I have lots of questions in my mind.
What languages should I use?What SDK should I use?How can i do that?
The easiest way to get into this is to make a FFmpeg wrapper. It might not be the fastest API and will require lots of hacks to get around, but there is a reason why it's embedded in so many video editing utilities: it works.
You can go via two routes, the API or using the executable and piping in/out of it (C#'s System.Diagnostics.Process with pipes will work well). If you know shell concepts well, I'd suggest starting with the second one.
Word of advice, standalone operations will be easy with FFmpeg, but combining many of them is hard and often requires multiple passes with temporary files.
Edit: oh and about VR, it doesn't matter at this level. It would if you were to be stitching the video or making (but not applying) overlays.
I am seeking a way to allow my non-tech users to specify a workflow and execute it (if anyone is interested, I want them to specify and execute test cases). Visual programming seems a good way to go.
Can I modify the Scratch IDE to remove some categories (such as sound, motion, etc), and add some of my own? Ditto for individual keywords (obviously, I then need to handle new keywords).
I have Googled, but the answer is not immediately apparent.
[Update] I have just found Google's Blockly
Blockly was influenced by App Inventor, which in turn was influenced
by Scratch, which in turn was influenced by StarLogo.
It looks very promising. Especially when it says
Exportable code. Users can extract their programs as JavaScript, Python, PHP, Dart or other language so that when they outgrow Blockly
they can keep learning.
Open source. Everything about Blockly is open: you can fork it, hack it, and use it in your own websites.
Extensible. Make Blockly fit with your application by adding custom blocks for your API and remove unneeded blocks and
functionality.
One possible snag is that it is browser based, but if my management don't like that, then I can create a dummy Windows based app consisting of little but a TWebBrowser component.
I will investigate and report back - unless someone else posts an acceptable answer first.
The short answer to your initial question is: no. You can't customize Scratch, or not to the extent that you seem to ask/want.
That said, look at:
custom blocks.
scratch extensions.
variants like snap
using scratch's source code in squeak to make your own variant.
other systems inspired from scratch, like appinventor and blockly.
Only the first two are compatible with the scratch web site.
A word on the site: depending on your purpose with Scratch, the exchange between users is a powerful part of scratch. Check how cooperation is supported, like the backpack. There's also a good wiki that documents much of the above.
I'm just creating my first project in Cappuccino without a lot of success. Looking for examples and documentation, there isn't a lot out there...
The differences from real Objective-C and the lack of libraries mean you cannot easily convert code directly from say a OS X desktop app. to Cappuccino.
As an experienced PHP, and RoR developer (besides the Java, VB, VC.....) I can't quite see the logic of abstracting/wrapping JavaScript in another language.
Any comments or suggestions for a more efficient framework?
If you have specific questions that can't be answered in the IRC channel (it just depends who's in there) you should post the question to the mailing list and someone will help you.
As for why you would want objective-j I'll point you to this blog post which contains several reasons why objj exists. http://cappuccino.org/discuss/2008/12/08/on-leaky-abstractions-and-objective-j/
I have converted several Objective-C classes nearly line for line into Cappuccino. Mostly it's a matter of changing NS to CP and changing pointers to non-pointers. What differences between Objective-C are you thinking about?
Indeed you could even take your existing XIB files from your Cocoa desktop app and convert them to Cappuccino using nib2cib. Here's how to work with Interface Builder using XCode 4: http://groups.google.com/group/objectivej/browse_thread/thread/786331dbcbc9c7b1.
I also recently started a project in Cappuccino and what I could say is: definitely it worth it. I'm used with javascript as well as (but less) cocoa (which helps). In short, the javascript is very fine, probably one of my favorite language because of it's flexibility. But it does lack of structure. For example there is no class in javascript and you have to trick with object inheritances, prototyping and so on. By using the Cappuccino framework at first you have all those very convenient facilities but also you do not reinvent the wheel each time. This is cross browser standardized so that you only have to focus on your code and not on the IE whims. As it is based on cocoa, cappuccino also comes with the MCV scheme in mind which again let you structure your project in an efficient way.
Ok you probably already know all this. What I could tell now about the learning curve is that I had to find the right tools to really get in. i.e.Installing cappuccino (sudo Starter/bootstrap.sh), creating a simple nib application (capp gen -t NibApplication YourApplication) then using xcodecapp-cocoa to listen, convert and open the project into Xcode what probably the hardest part of this learning curve to meā¦
Now if you are still not satisfied with cappuccino, I can only suggest to look at another framework like http://javascriptmvc.com/ , www.grooveshark.com used it to do their amazing webapp-site but I personally would never go back to html for building a web application. (conversely I would not use cappuccino for a webpage neither, "The cobbler should stick to his last")
I began writing cappuccino a couple of months ago and had a lot of difficulty when it came to setting up the proper development environment. I also had numerous problems writing working client server code that worked well.
I eventually broke through and started doing better with Cappuccino and then I found these video tutorials that would have helped so much earlier on. They did cost me $30 but I really wished I had watched these at the start because they help you get set up properly as a developer and get you started on the right learning curve.
I actually discovered these videos when using Cappuccinos IRC which has helped me a couple of times when I couldn't find an answer.
Info on the videos here: http://cappuccino.org/discuss/2011/10/19/cappuccino-training-course-ideveloper-tv/
I'm moving away from strict Android development and wanting to create iPhone applications. My understanding is that I can code the backend of iOS applications in C/C++ and also that I can use the NDK to include C/C++ code in Android apps. My question however is how? I've googled quite a bit and I can't find any clear and concise answers.
When looking at sample code for the NDK, it seems that all the function names etc. are Android (or at least Java) specific and so I would not be able to use this C/C++ backend to develop an iPhone frontend?
I'd appreciate some clarification on this issue and if at all available some code to help me out? (even just a simple Hello World that reads a string from a C/C++ file and displays it in an iOS and Android app).
Thanks guys
Chris
Note that I almost exclusively work on "business/utility/productivity" applications; things that rely heavily on fairly standard UI elements and expect to integrate well with their platform. This answer reflects that. See Mitch Lindgren's comment to Shaggy Frog's answer for good comments for game developers, who have a completely different situation.
I believe #Shaggy Frog is incorrect here. If you have effective, tested code in C++, there is no reason not to share it between Android and iPhone, and I've worked on projects that do just that and it can be very successful. There are dangers that should be avoided, however.
Most critically, be careful of "lowest common denominator." Self-contained, algorithmic code, shares very well. Complex frameworks that manage threads, talk on the network, or otherwise interact with the OS are more challenging to do in a way that doesn't force you to break the paradigms of the platform and shoot for the LCD that works equally badly on all platforms. In particular, I recommend writing your networking code using the platform's frameworks. This often requires a "sandwich" approach where the top layer is platform-specific and the very bottom layer is platform-specific, and the middle is portable. This is a very good thing if designed carefully.
Thread management and timers should also be done using the platform's frameworks. In particular, Java uses threads heavily, while iOS typically relies on its runloop to avoid threads. When iOS does use threads, GCD is strongly preferred. Again, the solution here is to isolate the truly portable algorithms, and let platform-specific code manage how it gets called.
If you have a complex, existing framework that is heavily threaded and has a lot of network or UI code spread throughout it, then sharing it may be difficult, but my recommendation still would be to look for ways to refactor it rather than rewrite it.
As an iOS and Mac developer who works extensively with cross-platform code shared on Linux, Windows and Android, I can say that Android is by far the most annoying of the platforms to share with (Windows used to hold this distinction, but Android blew it away). Android has had the most cases where it is not wise to share code. But there are still many opportunities for code reuse and they should be pursued.
While the sentiment is sound (you are following the policy of Don't Repeat Yourself), it's only pragmatic if what you can share that code in an efficient manner. In this case, it's not really possible to have a "write once" approach to cross-platform development where the code for two platforms needs to be written in different languages (C/C++/Obj-C on iPhone, Java for Android).
You'll be better off writing two different codebases in this case (in two different languages). Word of advice: don't write your Java code like it's C++, or your C++ code like it's Java. I worked at a company a number of years ago who had a product they "ported" from Java to C++, and they didn't write the C++ code like it was C++, and it caused all sorts of problems, not to mention being hard to read.
Writing a shared code base is really practical in this situation. There is some overhead to setting up and keeping it organized, but the major benefits are these 1) reduce the amount of code by sharing common functionality 2) Sharing bug fixes to the common code base. I'm currently aware of two routes that I'm considering for a project - use the native c/c++ (gains in speed at the expense of losing garbage collection and setting targets per processor) or use monodroid/monotouch which provide c# bindings for each os's platform functionality (I'm uncertain of how mature this is.)
If I was writing a game using 3d I'd definitely use approach #1.
I posted this same answer to a similar question but I think it's relevant so...
I use BatteryTech for my platform-abstraction stuff and my project structure looks like this:
On my PC:
gamename - contains just the common code
gamename-android - holds mostly BatteryTech's android-specific code and Android config, builders point to gamename project for common code
gamename-win32 - Just for building out to Windows, uses code from gamename project
On my Mac:
gamename - contains just the common code
gamename-ios - The iPhone/iPad build, imports common code
gamename-osx - The OSX native build. imports common code.
And I use SVN to share between my PC and Mac. My only real problems are when I add classes to the common codebase in Windows and then update on the mac to pull them down from SVN. XCode doesn't have a way to automatically add them to the project without scripts, so I have to pull them in manually each time, which is a pain but isn't the end of the world.
All of this stuff comes with BatteryTech so it's easy to figure out once you get it.
Besides using C/C++ share so lib.
If to develop cross-platform apps like game, suggest use mono-based framework like Unity3D.
Else if to develop business apps which require native UI and want to share business logic code cross mobile platforms, I suggest use Lua embedded engine as client business logic center.
The client UI is still native and get best UI performance. i.e Java on Android and ObjectC on iOS etc.
The logic is shared with same Lua scripts for all platform.
So the Lua layer is similar as client services (compare to server side services).
-- Anderson Mao, 2013-03-28
Though I don't use these myself as most of the stuff I write won't port well, I would recommend using something like Appcelerator or Red Foundry to build basic applications that can then be created natively on either platform. In these cases, you're not writing objective-c or java, you use some kind of intermediary. Note that if you move outside the box they've confined you to, you'll need to write your own code closer to the metal.