The BeOSJournal found Bill Davenport well rested after arranging to interview him at a mutual time. (His time: 6:30am)... Bill was kind enough to endure being interviewed by us, and has a lot to say about his latest project: Virtual BeLive!, video editing software.

Thanks for doing this at such an ungodly hour, Bill, it's a real testament to your BeOS spirit. ;)

Davenport: You're welcome, and you said something about being well rested, I need to work on that.

For our readers who don't yet know what this is, what is Virtual BeLive! in a nutshell?

Virtual BeLive! is an open source (freeware) video editing software for the BeOS. VBL! offers trasitional effects as well as Video effects such as color, blur, and emboss.

You explained in our emails that VBL! grew out of a school project? Tell us how that got started...

VBL! was started by three college students back in 1999 at a French Computer Science College called Epita.

I need to give credit where it is due. The three students were Sébastien Piechurski, Stéphane Verrecchia and William Hamon.

What happened to the project before you got involved?

VBL! was a semester project. So after the semester was over they put it aside. That was in 2000. In 2001 a guy by the name of Ernest saw that the software had been posted on CNet. Through some emails, Ernest found that the software wasn't going to be worked on and sought to keep the project alive.

Ernest received the source and shared it with some other BeOS enthusiasts. Some progress was made. Ernest caught the attention of Philippe Houdoin who also did some work on the code. But by the end of 2001 the project had lost steam and was put on hold.

Is Ernest still involved with the new resurrection of the project?

Yes, he is! I am very glad that he has stayed with this project. He is a tried and true BeOS user. Actually, one of the origional coders Sebastian, has now rejoined and is working on the renderer.

What is your role in this project?

I guess the biggest role I play right now is motivation and coordinator. I'm learning the code but I believe that there are much better coders out there than me. Some that know aspects of BeOS far better than I could guess at. So my goal is to create a community project where we each can add our part and create a great piece of software for BeOS that we can really use.

Who else is involved, other than yourself and Ernest?

Actually, one of the original coders, Sebastian, has now rejoined and is working on the renderer. I have seen a lot of people downloading the software and posting feedback. This is GREAT! It's only been a week since the release and I've had a lot of people give me support and feedback.

At some point I'll need a feedback forum for software dev. and ideas. Time is a precious commodity and I'm trying to use it to my advantage. Darkwyrm has said he'd give me pointers on the UI (that was before he had to stop). I'm sure that he'll still do it but I wouldn't expect him to now. I also have some leads and I'm very intersted how they will turn out.

How long have you been involved with programming?

More formally the last 5 years. But I started when I was 11 on an Apple IIe. Wanting to program graphics. I went to college for graphics programming but I stopped short of my degree. I'm still considering going back.

I did take a majority of my courses, but my C++ is very rusty. One of the teachers I had acutally let me and a friend write our code in Be!! It was (and is) so much nicer to be able to create projects in Be.

Do you foresee BeOS being used more widely as a programming tool in education?

Unfortunately, I don't see that trend. But I do notice a lot of high school and college students finding BeOS as a great place to learn and expand their coding experience.

One good thing about BeOS and OBOS is that it has needs. So that creates a good platform for development. Meeting needs is partly what programming is about.

How complete is the codebase for VBL! in respect to the original intentions of the college students?

VBL! was origionally designed on BeOS 4.5.2. And I think it may still work on it. For the most part I think they met thier goal. In emails, Sebastian has written that there were unfinished parts.

There original goal was to create a full fledged video editing software in one semester. There are some documents (in French, which I'm trying to convert to English) that explain the details of how they went about to accomplish that goal. I have put the first of those documents on my web site.

They detail each aspect of VBL! and code snippets. It's a real insiders view and the process behind the software. Their objectives were: Timeline, Video FX, Video trasitions, video clipboard and rendering. The basics of each were achieved. There is a good base of code that has some great features and room to grow.

It's been compiled for BeOS R5. It works in Zeta/Dano as well, yes? What areas of the project have had to be changed to accomodate the different platforms, and what areas are still being refined to take advantage of the new OpenBeOS media kit, if at all?

I did have it tested on Dano and received the same results as BeOS R5. What I'll probably do is ask some OBOS programmers about the api. At this point I want to get the software fully functional and then expand.

I think that both platforms, Zeta/Dano and OBOS, are important for the future of what BeOS gave to us. Once the renderer is fixed I will be able to see if there is an issue with Zeta. So far no code has yet to be changed to accommodate either platform. OpenBeOS would be a great fit for VBL! But at this point I'm not stuck on a platform. BeOS R5 is the immediate goal and then we'll branch out from there.

Joyce from ZetaNews.com asks, "What is the current state of VBL!?"

Progressing along nicely. VBL! needs support and without it it will fail. My hope is that in the next few month VBL! will turn the corner. There are a lot of people writing me and asking questions. I spend most of my energy making contacts and communicating to people. I do spend time with the code but I really want people who know the api to make it happen.

Joyce from ZetaNews.com asks, "What other BeOS applications have you worked on?"

I have not worked on any other applications for BeOS. I joined the community back in 1997 as an enthusiast programmer. I have longed for applications that have yet to surface. I hope that my experience with VBL! will offer the chance to tackle those longings.

Joyce from ZetaNews.com asks, "What sets VBL! apart from the traditional video editors?"

Apart from it being on BeOS, I think the first thing is that it's freeware. Open to be used, explored and learned from. I've used a lot of different video editors (mostly Windows based) both free and commercial.

In it's current state VBL! has some of the features that a traditional editor offers. It has a lot of room to grow. What will set it apart is what I am set out to do.

Ok Bill ... I know you have to run with your kids, and your day has started, so we'll just wrap this up and conclude the interview in a second part... Sound groovy?

Yeah, thanks for taking the time.

Thank you for getting up at such an early hour for us all. ;) See you in part 2!

See you then.