Bug#587898: Bug#587904: error message should say what to try next if codec not found

[Fabian Greffrath]

Am 02.07.2010 17:50, schrieb jidanni at jidanni.org:
> So they spread the word "forget ffmpeg".

There is a reason for everything and there is even documentation for 
(nearly) everything. People who keep themselves informed should know 
about both and not render premature justice.

> So that's why your patch should at least say
> ***Probable causes:...
>
> There's only a small chance that the user will be "nurd" enough to dig
> out the README files and figure out what they mean.

Come on...

> There's a much bigger chance that they will spread the word "ffmpeg is
> busted. Skip it."
>
> So it appears your version is doing more harm than good in the world, maybe.

Really, come on...

> Therefore in order to not damage ffmpeg's reputation, there should be a
> runtime
> ***Probable causes:...
> that tells the user "all hope is not lost" because they can simply
> install this other package as hinted to in the readme file...

I'd say "no" for two reasons:

First, ffmpeg itself is just more or less another random frontend to 
libavcodec. Consider how many packages use ffmpeg and are thus unable 
to convert to MP3 in Debian, e.g. vlc and the whole gstreamer 
framework including its multitude of frontends. Should we add a 
"Probable cause" error message to all of them? I don't think so. 
Calling the codec by name in the ffmpeg error message should be 
sufficient to motivate users to digg into documentation. Reading 
README isn't really considered an act of awesomeness in Debian.

Second, what does "Probable cause" mean. The probable cause for a 
missing MP3 encoder is the fact that ffmpeg in Debian isn't built 
against libmp3lame. But again, that's easy to find out via the 
documentation shipped in this very package. I hope you don't want us 
to start a discussion about the legality to ship certain combinations 
of software in an error message?

> All I know is you mentioned it in the readme, so you can have the error
> message mention to see the readme at least.

Yes, but we mention it in the README only to distance ourselves from 
this repository. Pointing to the README from the error message might 
be considered, but again, please see above.

> OK, I made
> https://roundup.ffmpeg.org/msg11039
> https://roundup.ffmpeg.org/msg11041

Great, thanks!


  - Fabian