Guys;
The big issue that you are all missing is this.
Your all assuming that we know what the range of port values will will
be ahead of time.
That is not the case!
A lot of hardware does not behave static. In fact the only way to know
what an acceptable range for many inputs is after the device is open
and configured.
For example, with IIDC FireWire cameras changing the Format or Mode or
Video Type changes the video size, frame rates, the exposure times ,
what input controls (hues, saturation Red Balance, blue, Hue etc.)
are supported, whether it delivers color or monochrome video etc. etc.
etc. In fact changing the ROI for Format 7 cameras causes the exposure
and frame rate to change for each 1 pixel decrease / increase.
To determine what the input ranges are means we have to open the
device, start configuring it and then read the range values back out.
The LOGICAL place to do this is in QCPlugin "-init" call, but we can't
do that because QCPlugins don't receive a "-dealloc" or "-finalize"
call so they can clean up after themselves.
So that leaves the only other place which this can be done is in the
execution side of a QCPlugin, which everyone says is the way to go -
and i completely disagree for many reasons previously.
But as Troy just pointed out below, we can not do this
"addInputPortWithType" from with an execute method, which was the only
other place you can do the "open" and "close" of the device. Thanks
for pointing this out, because if I had checked this out, then I would
have been even more annoyed with QC Plugin limitations.
So you can't even set up the input ports properly to handle a dynamic
case because you can't open the device from the non execution side. So
we have now a second Catch 22 situation.
The DFG is far simpler to work with than the tens of thousands of IIDC
cameras out there that we handle in Astro IIDC and I used in my
example , but the above makes setting up even "Static" ports where I
know what the device can do simply not going to work.
So inputs are another dead end and I'm fast running out of options here.
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1106 - 428 Chaparral Ravine View SE.
Calgary Alberta T2X 0N2
1-(403)-453-1624
[email protected]
www.outcastsoft.com
On 23-Oct-09, at 12:29 PM, Troy Koelling wrote:
On Oct 23, 2009, at 11:15 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:
Yes but -32767 to 32768 is not 0 to 23 or 0 to 4, is it?
Maybe this will help that particular situation?
extern NSString* const QCPortAttributeMinimumValueKey; //For Number
ports only
extern NSString* const QCPortAttributeMaximumValueKey; //For Index
and Number ports only
Used in conjunction with:
/*
Adds an input port of a given type (QCPortType...) and key on the
plug-in, and with optional attributes (QCPortAttribute...).
This method will throw an exception if called from within an
execution method, or if there's already an input or output port with
that key.
*/
- (void) addInputPortWithType:(NSString*)type forKey:(NSString*)key
withAttributes:(NSDictionary*)attributes;
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