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>Chapter 4. Elements</H1
><P
>
The most important object in <SPAN
CLASS="application"
>GStreamer</SPAN
> for the
application programmer is the <CODE
CLASS="classname"
>GstElement</CODE
> object.
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>4.1. What is an element ?</A
></H1
><P
>
An element is the basic building block for the media pipeline.
All the different high-level components you are going to use are
derived from <CODE
CLASS="classname"
>GstElement</CODE
>. This means that a
lot of functions you are going to use operate on objects of this class.
</P
><P
> Elements, from the perspective of GStreamer, are viewed as "black boxes"
with a number of different aspects. One of these aspects is the presence
of "pads" (see <A
HREF="chapter-pads.html"
>Chapter 5</A
>), or link points. This terminology arises from soldering;
pads are where wires can be attached.
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