SmallPlayer

A simple media player for GNUstep, built on SmallStep and FOSS C/C++/Objective-C libraries.

Features

• File > Open to open video files (formats depend on selected backend)
• Play / Pause / Stop controls
• Video display with aspect-ratio–preserving scaling
• Time display (current / duration)
• Configurable backends: Backend menu to choose FFmpeg, MPlayer, MEncoder, or mpv (choice persisted)
• Uses SmallStep for cross-platform app host, menu, and file dialog

Dependencies

• GNUstep (base, gui, back): GNUstep
• SmallStep: sibling project at ../SmallStep (built automatically)
• FFmpeg (for FFmpeg backend): libavformat, libavcodec, libavutil, libswscale — FFmpeg
• MPlayer (for MPlayer / MEncoder / mpv backends): MPlayer — mplayer and mencoder in PATH (mpv backend uses mplayer -identify for dimensions)
• mpv (for mpv backend): mpv — mpv in PATH

Installing (Linux)

• FFmpeg (default backend):
  Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev
  Fedora: sudo dnf install ffmpeg-devel
  Arch: sudo pacman -S ffmpeg
• MPlayer (optional, for MPlayer/MEncoder backends and for mpv backend probe):
  Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install mplayer
  Fedora: sudo dnf install mplayer
  Arch: sudo pacman -S mplayer
• mpv (optional, for mpv backend):
  Debian/Ubuntu: sudo apt install mpv
  Fedora: sudo dnf install mpv
  Arch: sudo pacman -S mpv

Build

From the SmallPlayer directory:

source /usr/share/GNUstep/Makefiles/GNUstep.sh   # or your GNUstep env
make

This builds SmallStep first (in ../SmallStep), then SmallPlayer. The executable is created in obj/ (or your GNUSTEP_OBJ_DIR).

Note: SmallStep uses Objective-C 2 features (weak, nullable, blocks). Build SmallStep with clang (and optionally ARC) if your default GNUstep toolchain uses GCC; otherwise build SmallStep separately with the right flags, then build SmallPlayer.

Run

./obj/SmallPlayer

Use File > Open to select a video file, then Play. Choose Backend > FFmpeg / MPlayer / MEncoder / mpv to switch backends (saved for next launch).

Project layout

SmallPlayer/
├── GNUmakefile
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
├── Sources/
│   ├── App/           # Application entry and delegate
│   │   ├── main.m
│   │   ├── AppDelegate.h
│   │   └── AppDelegate.m
│   ├── Player/        # Playback engine and video view
│   │   ├── SPPlayerEngine.h
│   │   ├── SPPlayerEngine.m
│   │   ├── SPPlayerView.h
│   │   └── SPPlayerView.m
│   └── Backend/       # Configurable backends (protocol + implementations)
│       ├── SPPlayerBackend.h/m        # Protocol and factory
│       ├── SPFFmpegBackend.h/c       # FFmpeg C API
│       ├── SPFFmpegPlayerBackend.h/m # FFmpeg backend (ObjC)
│       ├── SPMplayerBackend.h/m      # MPlayer -vo yuv4mpeg
│       └── SPMencoderBackend.h/m     # MEncoder raw RGB24
└── obj/               # Build output (created by make)

Architecture

• Sources/Backend – SPPlayerBackend protocol: open file, play/pause/stop, seek, deliver frames via delegate. SPPlayerBackendCreate() builds the active backend (FFmpeg, MPlayer, MEncoder, mpv). SPFFmpegBackend (C): FFmpeg open/decode → RGB24. SPFFmpegPlayerBackend: ObjC wrapper, decode thread, delegate callbacks. SPMplayerBackend: spawns mplayer -vo yuv4mpeg:file=fd:1, parses YUV4MPEG2, YUV→RGB, delegate. SPMencoderBackend: mplayer -identify for size, then mencoder -ovc raw -vf format=rgb24 -of rawvideo -o -, reads raw RGB24, delegate. SPMpvBackend: mplayer -identify for size, then mpv --o=- --of=rawvideo --ovc=raw --ovcopts=format=rgb24 --no-audio, reads raw RGB24, delegate.
• Sources/Player – SPPlayerEngine: Holds current backend (from user default), forwards all calls; implements SPPlayerBackendDelegate and forwards to app. SPPlayerView: Custom NSView for current frame (centered, scaled).
• Sources/App – AppDelegate: SmallStep host/menu/file dialog, main window, Backend menu (FFmpeg / MPlayer / MEncoder / mpv), Play/Pause/Stop, time label.

License

Same as SmallStep; see SmallStep LICENSE and your chosen FFmpeg license (LGPL/GPL).