1 <sect1 id="chapter-dependencies">
2 <title id="title-dependencies">Dependencies</title>
3 <qandaset defaultlabel="qanda">
6 <question id="dependencies-why-so-many">
7 <para>Why are there so many dependencies ?</para>
12 Making a full-featured media framework is a huge undertaking in itself.
13 By using the work done by others, we both reduce the amount of redundant work
14 being done and leave ourselves free to work on the architecture itself
15 instead of working on the low-level stuff. We would be stupid not to reuse
16 the code others have written.
19 However, do realize that in no way you are forced to have all dependencies
20 installed. None of the core developers has all of them installed. GStreamer
21 has only a few obligate dependencies : GLib 2.0, liboil, and very
22 common stuff like glibc, a C compiler, and so on. All of the other
23 dependencies are optional.
26 So, in closing, let's rephrase the question to
27 <quote>Why are you giving me so many choices and such a rich environment ?
34 <question id="dependencies-glib">
36 Does GStreamer use GTK+ 1.2/GLib 1.2 or GLib 2.0 ?
42 Since the 0.3.3 release of GStreamer, we use GLib 2.0 as the core library
43 for GStreamer, which features a move of GObject from GTK+ 2.0 to GLib 2.0.
44 If you want to compile using GTK+ 1.2/GLib 1.2, you need to get the
45 0.3.1 or earlier release. It is of course not supported.
51 <question id="dependencies-dxr">
53 Does GStreamer offer support for DVD decoder cards like dxr2/3 ?
59 We do have support for the dxr3, although dxr2 support is unknown.
60 GStreamer can easily accommodate hardware acceleration by writing new
61 device-specific elements.
67 <question id="dependencies-x">
68 <para>Is GStreamer X independent ?</para>
73 Yes, we have no X dependency in any of our core modules. There are GStreamer
74 applications that run fine without any need for X. However, until our Linux
75 Framebuffer or libsvga plugin is ready, you will not be able to play videos
76 without X. In the future, there will probably be lots of different output
77 plugins for video available.
83 <question id="dependencies-ladspa">
84 <para>What is GStreamer's position on efforts such as LADSPA ?</para>
89 GStreamer actively supports such efforts, and in the case of
90 <ulink url="http://ladspa.org/"><citetitle>LADSPA</citetitle></ulink>,
91 we already have a wrapper plugin. This wrapper plug-in detects the LADSPA
92 plugins present on your system at register time.
98 <question id="dependencies-midi">
99 <para>Does GStreamer support MIDI ?</para>
104 Not yet. The GStreamer architecture should be able to support the needs of
105 MIDI applications very well however. If you are a developer interested in
106 adding MIDI support to GStreamer we are very interested in getting in touch
113 <question id="dependencies-gnome">
114 <para>Does GStreamer depend on GNOME ?</para>
119 No. But many of the applications developed for GStreamer do, including our
120 sample applications. There is nothing hindering people from developing
121 applications using other toolkits however and we would happily help promote
122 such efforts. A good example of an application using GStreamer, but which is
123 not using GNOME is the
124 <ulink url="http://mozstreamer.mozdev.org"><citetitle>
125 Mozstreamer</citetitle></ulink> which uses Mozilla XUL.