Magnum Opus

[Bilge]

Hey Phil,

It's quite clear that ExifTool is your greatest programming achievement - your Magnum Opus, if you will - and you will soon be celebrating the 10 year anniversary! ExifTool is great but as with all software that evolves over a long period of time it's imperfect.

I'd like to propose porting ExifTool to C++ to combat its biggest limitation: performance. This would also expose opportunities to rethink and improve some areas and make the tool better overall.

I realise what I'm asking is a massive and therefore seemingly daunting undertaking but if you took advantage of social coding and hosted the project on GitHub I'm sure the community would help.

[Phil Harvey]

Thanks for the suggestion.  (I do have other more significant software projects, in C++ actually, so I don't consider ExifTool to be my Magnum Opus.  However, they aren't freeware.)

I considered the prospect of a rewrite in C++ back in 2004, but discounted the possibility because I don't have the time.  Maybe when I retire, if my mind hasn't gone by then...

The social coding project you mention already exists in the form of Exiv2.  It isn't the same as ExifTool, but it does have good functionality.  Have you looked into this project?

- Phil

[Bilge]

I hadn't heard of Exiv2, but there are certain things that ExifTool does that I can't live without; mainly tag grouping which I rely on for both data stripping and parsing.

I believe maintaining a hobby helps maintain sanity