Re: [Cdw-devel] BD/Blu-ray Support

[Kamil I. <ac...@wp...>]

On 07.11.2013 02:47, Roger wrote:
> Aside from dvd+rw-tools supporting BD-R/RE media, xorriso also handles BD-R/RE
> media.
>
> Here's a quick debug log from cdw, specifying xorriso to hand writing type CD media.
>
> --- Snip ---
> --- Snip ---
>

Hello Roger,

Thank you for the information about BD and Blu-ray.

If memory servers me well, then it wouldn't be *very* hard to add code 
for support of these media in cdw. If libcdio doesn't fully support them 
then perhaps some library from libburnia does.I'm also confident that 
both xorriso and dvd+rw-tools support these media as well.

The hard part of the problem would be testing the new functionality 
added to cdw.

I remember that when testing correctness of support of CDs and DVDs in 
cdw, I've burned literally tens of CDs and DVDs to cover as many use 
cases as possible:
  - creating ISO image and then burning the ISO image to disc;
  - burning files directly to disc;
  - creating multi-session discs;
  - creating single-session discs;
  - trying to create some error states/situations when burning CDs/DVDs;
  - burning with different speeds;
  - burning with verification;
  - burning with different options enabled and disabled;
  - a mix of the above.

As I've said, I had to use tens of discs of different types to be sure 
that cdw can be released as useful, practical application. The cost of 
the discs wasn't a major issue for me. What was problematic was time 
needed to do the testing. I've spent many hours looking at the progress 
bar during the burning process. This can't be automated. This can't be 
sped up. Testing how 4.5 GB of data is burned to a disc, and how it is 
verified, is an exercise in patience.

Can you imagine what it would be to test burning 25 GB of data? :D

I've seen an opinion that it is easy for FOSS developers to write shiny 
and easy applications, but it's harder to do the boring, grunt work that 
is necessary to create a really useful piece of code.

I'm afraid that until now cdw has suffered the same kind of problem, and 
implementing proper support for DVDs was all I could take. But maybe 
it's time to face the challenge :)

Right now I'm finishing work on some other project (unixcw), and doing a 
next dev cycle on another (cwdaemon). After that perhaps I would take a 
look at cdw and see if - after 2 years from last release - it still 
compiles :) Maybe then I could make some moves towards adding support 
for DB *or* Blu-ray.

Tell me please - does anyone use these types of discs? Is there any real 
need for supporting them in cdw? I've got impression that optical media 
in general is slowly becoming a technology of the past, and BD/Blu-ray 
never became as popular as CDs/DVDs (at least as medium for storing data).

Best regards,
Kamil