[vorbis-dev] comment field proposal

[Michael Smith]

>Is the comment header optional? I'd like it to be. I always remove the id3
>tag from mp3s, since the only thing it's "good" for in my experience is
>displaying a mis-spelled or wrong artist/song name in WinAmp, even though
>I've fixed the filename.
>
>A tool to edit/remove/insert the comment header would be nice.
>

The comment header is NOT optional. It is, however, entirely permissible
for it to not actually have any comments in it (I think the 'vendor' is
still required, though - this is currently set to "Xiphophorus libVorbis I
20000508" as Monty mentioned earlier.)

So no, it's not optional, but you aren't required to have anything like
title in there.

Tools to edit the comments would be nice. I was thinking of writing one
later today, actually (If I can get my comp sci and physics projects done
in time...). Since I hate (HATE HATE HATE) writing actual interface code,
it'd probably be pretty simplistic, but I'll try to make it clear so that
other people can add a nice interface to it. 

Might take some work though. Could be a few days until I find time to
finish it.

>Perhaps a vendor prefix should be mandatory, in order to avoid polluting the
>global namespace? Private individuals could use their name or handle as the
>vendor string, companies should of course use the company name.
>I.e. something like this:
>
>J_RANDOM_HACKER.FIELDNAME=Something
>RED_HAT.FIELDNAME=Something else
>MICROSOFT.FIELDNAME= ;)
>

I was also thinking something like this, though more along the lines of
X-whatever=something for any 'unlisted' field, like how mime types work. 

Michael

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