Information Overload on GiP Changes

[Budgie]

On 31/10/14 23:36, Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer wrote:
> Budgie <ajebay at errichel.co.uk> wrote:
>
>> First my grateful thanks for the massive amount of work which
>> dinkypumpkin and others have put into GiP.  I have made constant use of
>> --pvr facility, mainly for radio, over the last two years and am most
>> grateful for the work which has brought my family and me a great deal of
>> pleasure.  I too am deeply troubled by the loss of this facility.
>>
>> I have been following the fast moving discussion and developments of
>> fall back options but regret have not been able to keep up.  In fact I
>> am left at starting gate.  Please could somebody point me to where I can
>> find out what exactly is Nitro API and where does it fit in with BBC.
>
> NITRO is the new way that apps (including internal BBC ones) ask questions
> of the database(s) of programmes etc and get answers back.  So for example
> when you use the BBC website to search for all dramas, behind the scenes the
> process is being handled by programmes following NITRO protocols.
>
> It's irrelevant to us at the moment because- according to the BBC developers
> website - no-one outside the BBC is beung granted access to write their own
> code to interrogate that system directly.
>
>
>> Also I see references to JSON.  OK, JavaScript Object Notation but what
>> does it mean to me
>
> Nothing unless you're a programmer.  It's a way of representing an
> arbitrarily complicated data structure (eg a list of lists of lists of some
> sets of information) in one long string of characters.  That string of
> characters can be sent from one computer to another - eg as the answer to a
> Nitro query - then the program that receives it can rebuild the list of
> lists of lists... and manipulate it.
>
> It's an alternative to representing a list of lists of lists... in an XML
> file.
>
>
Thanks Jeremy, that helps me understand a bit more.  Having continued to 
read on the BBC site it certainly seems to me they are working towards a 
closed system to prevent leakage of licence fees.

I guess the public will only get access to the iPlayer material if they 
have a TV licence or some new "on-line" license.  Just a guess but is it 
a credible threat?

Now to do some PID searches.

Thanks again,
Budgie