Decode Like It's 1999: MPEG-1 Decoder in JavaScript

Re:Decode Like It's 1999: MPEG-1 Decoder in JavaScript by userbinator on Wednesday February 28, 2018 @11:25PM (#16489668)

Regardless of language, writing a decoder for a standard image or video format is a highly recommended exercise to develop your skills at implementating a specification (and optimisation, if you choose.) You don't have to jump into the deep end with H.264 or similar, and even MPEG-1 is beyond what I'd recommend for a beginner; something like H.261 would be good to start with, with MPEG-1 being the next step up.

The fun thing about experimenting with video codecs is that your results are visible in a very real way.

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Re:Decode Like It's 1999: MPEG-1 Decoder in JavaScript by westoncb on Thursday March 01, 2018 @01:14AM (#16490061)

Along similar lines, writing a simple emulator (e.g. Chip-8) or a 3D model loader/renderer/animator (e.g. for md2 or md3 files, which have an open spec and lots of models available) would be similarly good I think, depending on your interest. In any case, you still get the implementing a spec practice and very visible results.

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Re:Decode Like It's 1999: MPEG-1 Decoder in JavaScript by VMG on Thursday March 01, 2018 @05:13AM (#16490887)

Compilers or interpreters are also great. In my experience the knowledge directly translates to everyday programming tasks.

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Re:Decode Like It's 1999: MPEG-1 Decoder in JavaScript by crankybear1337 on Thursday March 01, 2018 @04:17AM (#16490635)

Can definitely recommend this!

A few years ago I wrote a JPEG encoder for a class, and it was one of the most fun projects I've had at the university. Seeing a picture with those iconic compression artifacts produced by your own implementation feels pretty nice :)

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