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>Chapter 3. Foundations</H1
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> This chapter of the guide introduces the basic concepts of <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>.
Understanding these concepts will be important in reading any of the
rest of this guide, all of them assume understanding of these basic
concepts.
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> An <SPAN
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><I
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>element</I
></SPAN
> is the most important class of objects
in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
>. You will usually create a chain of elements linked
together and let data flow through this chain of elements. An element
has one specific function, which can be the reading of data from a
file, decoding of this data or outputting this data to your sound
card (or anything else). By chaining together several such elements,
you create a <SPAN
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>pipeline</I
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> that can do a specific task,
for example media playback or capture. <SPAN
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>GStreamer</SPAN
> ships with a large
collection of elements by default, making the development of a large
variety of media applications possible. If needed, you can also write
new elements. That topic is explained in great deal in the <SPAN
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><I
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>GStreamer Plugin Writer's Guide</I
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>.
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