[flac-dev] Tag flac as flac 1.2.1_git

Brian Willoughby
2013-01-18T03:26:00Z

The flac front-end utility should have its own version number, on a
separate schedule from the flac library. I can see that we'd be able
to add features to the utility quite extensively without ever
changing the file format or the library. I realize that the utility
has historically shared the library version number, but I see a
strong case to separate them from each other to free up development
possibilities.

Apart from fixing some issues with newer compilers, the library is
the same code. It should probably remain 1.2.1 or advance to 1.2.2 if
there are actually any significant code changes.

If we can agree on separating the library and utility version
numbers, then I think we'll have a much better chance of agreeing on
version numbers. Not to mention the fact that embedded devices
without a command line or any other kind of utility won't needlessly
see version number changes when the format remains the same. On that
note, I suppose this means we might want to mark FLAC files with the
version of the utility that created them, since the format version
number won't indicate that going forward - perhaps an application
block would be appropriate.

Brian Willoughby
Sound Consulting


On Jan 17, 2013, at 09:27, Ralph Giles wrote:
> On 13-01-16 11:10 PM, Erik de Castro Lopo wrote:
>> My understanding is that the recent changes for 7 and 8 channels was
>> a documentation change only.
>
> I think we should also change the flac front-end utility to construct
> and interpret the WAVE channel mask for 7 and 8 channel files. No one
> has written that patch yet.
>
> FWIW I generally agree with Erik that 1.3.x is justified by the long
> period without a point release. Adding a channel mapping for 7 and 8
> channel files is a small spec addition, and doesn't have a serious
> effect on deployed implementations.