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

Sat Aug 5 20:19:59 UTC 2023

By the way, switching to X11 may be the only feasible way to have some
modern software on 10.4–10.6 *Intel*.
Whether with VLC or with SDL, as well as with a number of other ports, the
primary problem – and really *the* stopper – is the SDK. Not bitness,
endianness or arch ABI (and in any case Intel is the most compatible here
with default thoughtless choices of some upstreams).

In this context maybe someone would have an interest in making it work on
the older Intel? (If I get this to work on PPC, I will test on Intel too.)

On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 9:20 PM Sergey Fedorov <vital.had at gmail.com> wrote:

> > So you’re not getting any current version to build, but as I said, you
> might get some old version to build.
>
> Just turn off ObjC garbage and build normally in C/C++ :)
> FreeBSD has it for 32-bit targets:
> https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd-ports/blob/main/multimedia/vlc/Makefile
> This will not require any extensive patching. What will need patching,
> will be mostly upstream bugs.
>
> As I noted above, I got issues due to endianness with VLC 2.2.8, so I do
> not make a claim that the video is gonna work correctly or – if not – that
> it is fixable. This I do not know.
>
> P. S. Tried now MPlayer, the build failed with some undeclared identifiers
> in libao2. Probably fixable.
>
> On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 2:26 PM Ken Cunningham <
> ken.cunningham.webuse at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 
>> vlc is built against a cocoa interface, not qt, on macos. It has many HAVE_OSX
>> defines scattered thoroughout the code, that all assume macos technologies
>> for the pathways. It is currently written to support a floor sdk of 10.11.
>> Changing all that code to support old systems again is… unrealistic, shall
>> we say.
>>
>> So you’re not getting any current version to build, but as I said, you
>> might get some old version to build. I have an old version that works now
>> on older systems, of course :) It just can’t play much.
>>
>> But Mplayer is much more functional, which was my point. And older
>> systems are lucky to have that, as vlc and mpv have left them all behind,
>> given their full GUIs needing more current SDK features.
>>
>> A recent update to the mplayer-devel code broke <10.7 , but that looks
>> like an easy fix to me.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Aug 4, 2023, at 23:03, Sergey Fedorov <vital.had at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> 
>> > even if you find some old version that still builds on the ancient
>> systems ... pointlessly out of date.
>>
>> 2.2.8 builds, I think the latest should (either with restored Qt4 or
>> without Qt). The question is which works.
>> So far it seems that X11 video output works but has broken colors due to
>> never fixed upstream bugs in OpenGL or alike.
>>
>> For example, this was reported in 2016 and apparently still broken:
>> https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-56975
>>
>> P. S. It is useful to have several players. From experience even on
>> modern Intel, none is perfectly reliable and some will be preferred to
>> another conditionally.
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 8:50 AM Ken Cunningham <
>> ken.cunningham.webuse at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> even if you find some old version that still builds on the ancient
>>> systems ... pointlessly out of date.
>>>
>>> yet MPlayer is right up to the minute, and worked very well even on
>>> Tiger PPC last I tried it.
>>>
>>> Anyway, play with VLC as you wish, of course.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Aug 4, 2023, at 5:26 PM, Sergey Fedorov <vital.had at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Don’t worry, I will not submit a PR for VLC unless it actually works
>>> with video. There is no point otherwise.
>>>
>>> If it does not, I just leave it. But for now it still makes sense to
>>> have an idea what to do with the port *IF* it works.
>>>
>>> On Sat, Aug 5, 2023 at 7:02 AM Ken Cunningham <
>>> ken.cunningham.webuse at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> For playing videos on older systems, I think MPlayer is the way to go.
>>>>
>>>> Give that a try if you haven't.
>>>>
>>>> Ken
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On 2023-08-04, at 3:57 PM, Sergey Fedorov wrote:
>>>>
>>>> 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.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.macports.org/pipermail/macports-dev/attachments/20230806/ddfff0ee/attachment-0001.htm>