media: docs: selection: improve formatting

Split section "Comparison with old cropping API" in paragraphs for
easier reading and improve visible links text.

Signed-off-by: Luca Ceresoli <luca@lucaceresoli.net>
Signed-off-by: Hans Verkuil <hans.verkuil@cisco.com>
Signed-off-by: Mauro Carvalho Chehab <mchehab+samsung@kernel.org>
This commit is contained in:
Luca Ceresoli 2018-05-14 07:27:26 -04:00 committed by Mauro Carvalho Chehab
parent ff9273f5b8
commit 119e30d395
1 changed files with 29 additions and 26 deletions

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@ -6,31 +6,34 @@
Comparison with old cropping API
********************************
The selection API was introduced to cope with deficiencies of previous
:ref:`API <crop>`, that was designed to control simple capture
devices. Later the cropping API was adopted by video output drivers. The
ioctls are used to select a part of the display were the video signal is
inserted. It should be considered as an API abuse because the described
operation is actually the composing. The selection API makes a clear
distinction between composing and cropping operations by setting the
appropriate targets. The V4L2 API lacks any support for composing to and
cropping from an image inside a memory buffer. The application could
configure a capture device to fill only a part of an image by abusing
V4L2 API. Cropping a smaller image from a larger one is achieved by
setting the field ``bytesperline`` at struct
:c:type:`v4l2_pix_format`.
Introducing an image offsets could be done by modifying field ``m_userptr``
at struct
:c:type:`v4l2_buffer` before calling
:ref:`VIDIOC_QBUF`. Those operations should be avoided because they are not
portable (endianness), and do not work for macroblock and Bayer formats
and mmap buffers. The selection API deals with configuration of buffer
The selection API was introduced to cope with deficiencies of the
older :ref:`CROP API <crop>`, that was designed to control simple
capture devices. Later the cropping API was adopted by video output
drivers. The ioctls are used to select a part of the display were the
video signal is inserted. It should be considered as an API abuse
because the described operation is actually the composing. The
selection API makes a clear distinction between composing and cropping
operations by setting the appropriate targets.
The V4L2 API lacks any support for composing to and cropping from an
image inside a memory buffer. The application could configure a
capture device to fill only a part of an image by abusing V4L2
API. Cropping a smaller image from a larger one is achieved by setting
the field ``bytesperline`` at struct :c:type:`v4l2_pix_format`.
Introducing an image offsets could be done by modifying field
``m_userptr`` at struct :c:type:`v4l2_buffer` before calling
:ref:`VIDIOC_QBUF <VIDIOC_QBUF>`. Those operations should be avoided
because they are not portable (endianness), and do not work for
macroblock and Bayer formats and mmap buffers.
The selection API deals with configuration of buffer
cropping/composing in a clear, intuitive and portable way. Next, with
the selection API the concepts of the padded target and constraints
flags are introduced. Finally, struct :c:type:`v4l2_crop`
and struct :c:type:`v4l2_cropcap` have no reserved
fields. Therefore there is no way to extend their functionality. The new
struct :c:type:`v4l2_selection` provides a lot of place
for future extensions. Driver developers are encouraged to implement
only selection API. The former cropping API would be simulated using the
new one.
flags are introduced. Finally, struct :c:type:`v4l2_crop` and struct
:c:type:`v4l2_cropcap` have no reserved fields. Therefore there is no
way to extend their functionality. The new struct
:c:type:`v4l2_selection` provides a lot of place for future
extensions.
Driver developers are encouraged to implement only selection API. The
former cropping API would be simulated using the new one.