VLC for PowerPC: make a separate port or modify existing?

[Sergey Fedorov]

I need an advice.

We got VLC2 port (which is totally broken for all systems) and VLC port,
which installs pre-built binary. Neither supports PPC, obviously, and even
i386.

Leaving the main VLC aside, VLC2 is already a mess and in the present state
is unusable for practical purposes. Rewriting the logic is doable (I have
done it locally, kind of), however I have few concerns here:

1. Given the complexity of the port, it may not be obvious for anyone who
might wish to update it in the future or fix something for Intel systems,
what has to be left untouched for PPC (assuming that testing for PPC cannot
be done due to lack of hardware). It is very easy to break the build, I
just now tried to enable a feature which looked harmless, and that broke
the build immediately. And we cannot really write passages of explanations
for every change or choice.

2. On the other hand, even though the port is currently broken for Intel,
my fixes might introduce some undesirable effects for it, unless of course
literally everything is put inside the guarding condition. But then we have
x2 more code in the port, which is already barely readable.

For these reasons, it seems easier and safer to have a separate VLC-ppc
port: then I can work on it without bothering to match versions or to break
anything for someone, and at the same time be reasonably sure no one
accidentally breaks PPC build.

However, we seldom make arch-specific ports, so I assume, it may not be
considered desirable.

Which way should I go here? Ultimately I am fine with either option, but it
will save time to decide first rather than having to rewrite later
something completely.


P. S. Re status of the thing itself:

Given that FreeBSD seems to build the current VLC 3.x for 32-bit archs,
including PPC (may be untested, but still), chances are it can be fixed.
However, support for Qt4 has to be restored or otherwise Qt should be
foregone completely.

*Building* of VLC2 I have fixed for PPC tonight. It works in some aspects
(GUI is acceptably okay, audio output seems perfect), but video either does
not or works partly (I cannot tests all output modes right now for
technical reasons).
So it is not a matter of tomorrow’s PR yet, but if it works, it may work
rather soon.
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