Wouldn't it be worthwhile to support the efforts of the cdindex project,
if not only to build up a new database? While that is progressing, the
members of this list and the freecddb list can brainstorm on the best way
to proceed. Whether we end up using a CDDB-style output, or an XML based
one, or what ever, is largely irrelevant. In the end, they are just
presentation formats.
Yes, the current system leaves a great deal to be desired. It only
supports very simple input formats, isn't very extensible, etc... The
MySQL DB backend probably isn't anymore complicated. On the other hand,
isn't it a good idea to begin building up the database?
- J.C.
"Gary D. Foster" wrote:
> >>>>> "MO" == Mike Oliphant <oliphant nospam at ling.ed.ac.uk> writes:
>
> MO> Why XML? Let's be realistic here. 99% of users are going to
> MO> just want disc title, artist, and track names. Not to mention
> MO> that I don't want to have to write a stack-based parser just
> MO> to be able to do disc lookup.
>
> I'm sort of with Mike here on this one. While XML is sexy and cool
> and you could do all sorts of nifty things with it, it's far better to
> have a quick, fast, easy to understand and easy to parse format. Such
> a format would _encourage_ developers to adopt the new DB code instead
> of the old cddb stuff.
>
> If you're going to go with XML, be prepared to offer precoded engines
> to everyone that they can just link in to their player code with a
> simple set of API's.
>
> On second thought, that's not too bad of an idea. You could supply a
> reference library (for _everyone_, not just the unix-heads in the
> crowd) that used a standardized API and provided a precoded parser.
>
> Ok, granted, I have only been on this list for about 5 minutes and I'm
> not sure what's passed by yet (a bunch, based on the traffic I've
> gotten in the last 5 minutes) so I might just want to shut up and
> watch for a few more minutes. I think it might be a good idea,
> though, if someone were to summarize the status thus far and put it up
> on a web page somewhere so us newcomers could get up to speed.
>
> -- Gary F.
>
> --
> "...Unix doesn't have a monopoly on good ideas, it just owns most of
> them."
>
> -- Alan Cox, "A Brave New World"