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

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

> I've taken time to add code to an old C project to turn it to apply to
> different hardware (ie. sctl -> dsctl), so I'm quite aware of the time required
> for programming in C.  My biggest problem is taking time to trace the code, to
> find what each function does.  As in your cdw, I ran into a line of uncommented
> code containing three functions.  I'm a commenter at heart, and sometimes over
> comment in an attempt to make code reading or tracing as easy as writing a
> book.  It's one thing to conquer reserving memory space when coding C, it's
> another step to conquer using Structures.  But even if it's written in some
> scripting, I still rarely ever like retracing my own old scripting code!
>
> Yup. Overall, time consuming.  About the only method I know of making it
> easier, is to comment every line of code, to make converting code to English
> (or your native language) more easier.
There is a risk involved in that method: sooner or later you won't 
update some comment, and will end up with code saying one thing, and 
comment saying something else. For some critical lines of code its 
better to have no comment than to have a comment that is misleading (IMHO).

> I would consider learning Python programming language, as I now have a faster
> computer, but learned Python has severe issues within being backwards
> compatibility with each major version!  Due to this, I realized this is a
> likely severe issue with the designing or engineering of Python, and have to
> speculate as to the overall stability of future path of Python.  (ie. Just
> because everybody jumps off a bridge, should I too? ;-)
Personally I'm torn between wanting to learn Python (supposed ease of 
use and elegance) and wanting to learn C++ (an ugly and powerful tool 
that still is in demand). Decisions, decisions...


>> 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).
>
> So far, I see the massive amount of space Blu-ray provides as only really a
> demand for people archiving video.  And with this thought, video disks
> minimally require udftools if they're just (legally) copying them.  So I use a
> few commands to perform this:
> [...]
> I have used Blu-ray (BD-R, BD-RE) for performing a mass system backup as well
> here.
I'm not a big consumer of movies, and I've never tried to add to cdw 
anything directly related to Video DVD. If I ever attempt to add support 
for new media, I think that it would be only for data storage.

Using libs and tools that are available in Debian's "main" should keep 
me on the safe side when it comes to "legality" of Blu-ray.


> My main interests are just to learn some C/NCurses with free time during
> Winter, as their still likely the de-facto of coding per my previously stated
> comments.
One thing that I've learned from my projects is that C and ncurses are 
only tools, not the goals in themselves.
The unixcw project required doing some code in awk, so I did it. It also 
forced me to learn a bit of C++/Qt4, so I did this as well.

Of course I understand the need for learning a particular language or 
library, but it's always easier to do so (better motivation) when your 
pet project (or a project that is vital to you) is using said language 
or library.

Best regards,
Kamil