[linux-dvb] DVB-S2 / Multiproto and future modulation support

[Steven Toth <stoth@linuxtv.org>]

Regarding the multiproto situation:

A number of developers, maintainers and users are unhappy with the
multiproto situation, actually they've been unhappy for a considerable
amount of time. The linuxtv developer community (to some degree) is seen
as a joke and a bunch in-fighting people. Multiproto is a great
demonstration of this. [1] The multiproto project has gone too far, for
too long and no longer has any credibility in the eyes of many people.

In response, a number developers have agreed that "enough is enough" and
"it's time to take a new direction", for these developers the technical,
political and personal cost of multiproto is too high. These developers
have decided to make an announcement.

Mauro Chehab, Michael Krufky, Patrick Boettcher and myself are hereby
announcing that we no longer support multiproto and are forming a
smaller dedicated project group which is focusing on adding next
generation S2/ISDB-T/DVB-H/DVB-T2/DVB-SH support to the kernel through a 
different and simpler API.

Basic patches and demo code for this API is currently available here.

http://www.steventoth.net/linux/s2

Does it even work? Yes
Is this new API complete? No
Is it perfect? No, we've already had feedback on structural and
namingspace changes that people would like to see.
Does it have bugs? Of course, we have a list of things we already know
we want to fix.

but ...

Is the new approach flexible? Yes, we're moving away from passing fixed
modulation structures into the kernel.
Can we add to it without breaking the future ABI when unforseen
modulations types occur? Yes
Does it preserve backwards compatibility? Yes
Importantly, is the overall direction correct? Yes
Does it impact existing frontend drivers? No.
What's the impact to dvb-core? Small.
What's the impact to application developers? None, unless an application 
developer wants to support the new standards - binary compatibility!

We want feedback and we want progress, we aim to achieve it.

Importantly, this project group seeks your support.

If you also feel frustrated by the multiproto situation and agree in
principle with this new approach, and the overall direction of the API
changes, then we welcome you and ask you to help us.

Growing the list of supporting names by 100%, and allowing us to publish
your name on the public mailing list, would show the non-maintainer
development community that we recognize the problem and we're taking
steps to correct the problem. We want to make LinuxTV a perfect platform
for S2, ISDB-T and other advanced modulation types, without using the
multiproto patches.

We're not asking you for technical help, although we'd like that  :) ,
we're just asking for your encouragement to move away from multiproto.

If you feel that you want to support our movement then please help us by
acking this email.

Regards - Steve, Mike, Patrick and Mauro.

Acked-by: Patrick Boettcher <pb@linuxtv.org>
Acked-by: Michael Krufky <mkrufky@linuxtv.org>
Acked-by: Steven Toth <stoth@linuxtv.org>
Acked-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab@infradead.org>

* [1]. Rather than point out the issues with multiproto here, take a
look at the patches and/or read the comments on the mailing lists.

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