[Icecast] Open source streaming project in need of developers

[David Baelde]

Hi Geoff,

Let me just add a couple details, and try to clarify the picture..

> The ACB Radio project requires software that can be operated for the most
> part by reasonably non-technical types who are more worried about which
> program should air in the next hour than finding the right process ID to
> send a HUP to.  Most have never programmed anything or ever used a CLI.

Your operators don't need to learn liquidsoap's configuration
language, just as they don't need to learn C and hack the guts of PRS.
Liquidsoap is meant to be a backend. It has several ways of
interacting with other components, but these components should be
developed specially for each case. The idea is to develop a liquidsoap
script that fits your needs, and then run it without modifications:
the radio operator just needs to interact with it through some
friendly interface.

Developing this liq script requires less knowledge than maintaining a
streamer in C: for example I had a librarian creating his non-trivial
liq script even though he never had any kind of programming experience
before. After scratching his head for a couple of days, and asking
questions on the mailing list, he had his radio running as he wanted,
and could stop thinking about this part for a long time. If he wants
to change that script, it's quite easy since it's much shorter and
more abstract than a C application.

Sorry to insist a bit, but I feel like there could be a win for you --
especially if you don't find motivated developers. Indeed, all your
critical bugs are in the stream generation backend. One might expect
that it's not too hard to untangle user interface from streaming
backing, as these usually have restricted interaction: play this file
next, what's currently on air, switch on/off live show relaying.
Hence, it might not be very difficult to use your own specially fitted
user interface with a new streaming backend.

Cheers,
-- 
David