Re: [PATCH 0/6] Initial Rust V4L2 support

Miguel Ojeda
2023-04-26T16:19:02Z

On Wed, Apr 26, 2023 at 2:32 AM Laurent Pinchart
<laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com> wrote:
>
> Now, I hope that mentioning "lifetime management problems" will be
> enough to nerd-snipe a rust enthusiast or two to help fix the C code in
> order to implement proper rust bindings on top ;-)

Good idea ;)

I think it is definitely a good opportunity to consider how Rust could
fit the new design, and perhaps borrow some ideas from Rust for the
new design, even. If you feel like a quick meeting could help on that,
please let us know.

> That would certainly be a required step, but I don't think it would be
> enough. On good days I see the media subsystem as barely able to cope
> with the current load, on bad days it feels it's completely collapsing.
>
> We have homework to do when it comes to maintenance for the media
> subsystem, we're doing *really* badly at the moment regarding community
> management and attracting (and retaining) new core contributors. This is
> a topic I really want to discuss face to face during the media workshop
> in Prague (and I know that many people are looking forward to that
> discussion).

I am sorry to hear that. One idea would be offsetting the extra work
by having the Rust person also take care of some of the C parts too.
That way you can also potentially get them to be a full maintainer at
some point, even if the Rust experiment does not pan out.

Of course, easier said than done, and managing more people always
takes extra time, but getting more people seems to be part of the
solution anyway, from what you say.

In any case, thanks a lot for at least considering it :)

Cheers,
Miguel