Incorrect Usage of PyInstaller to Bundle FFmpeg

[ebb-earl-co]

Based on errors reported in #235 and #230 and #39, investigation using $PREFERRED_SEARCH_ENGINE revealed that there is a special distinction between running tidal-wave from the source code and running tidal-wave from the PyInstaller-created binaries. In no particular order:

• For Windows, a semicolon is needed in the value passed to pyinstaller --add-data= rather than a colon on the UNIX-like platforms: StackOverflow link
  • More specific information around FFmpeg and PyInstaller together here
• Because of various system paths and library finding behaviors, it isn't generally possible to just add the FFmpeg binary (ffmpeg or ffmpeg.exe) to the top-level directory of tidal-wave that is bundled using PyInstaller. Rather, a special attribute of the Python standard library, sys._MEIPASS needs to be interrogated and logic based on its value: StackOverflow link
  • More information in the PyInstaller docs
• The python-ffmpeg package looks in specified directories for the FFmpeg binary, and that does not include the current working directory!

[ebb-earl-co]

Closed with the merging of #237