From owner-freebsd-multimedia Wed Nov 26 01:41:56 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id BAA04203 for multimedia-outgoing; Wed, 26 Nov 1997 01:41:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-multimedia) Received: from labinfo.iet.unipi.it (labinfo.iet.unipi.it [131.114.9.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with SMTP id BAA04197 for ; Wed, 26 Nov 1997 01:41:52 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it) Received: from localhost (luigi@localhost) by labinfo.iet.unipi.it (8.6.5/8.6.5) id JAA06650; Wed, 26 Nov 1997 09:37:16 +0100 From: Luigi Rizzo Message-Id: <199711260837.JAA06650@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> Subject: command-line vat/like program To: multimedia@freebsd.org Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 09:37:16 +0100 (MET) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-multimedia@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Hi, this message is to ask for suggestions etc. There is some work in progress to build a vat/rat-like program with a simple command line interface, for those who don't want to fire X and Tk/Tcl to do simple internet telephony. In my view, this program should not do everything vat/rat does, but has two main applications: - be usable for "broadcast" applications e.g. where one wants to send (or receive) audio from a box without having to fire vat; taking this to the extreme, one could even think of putting the program in MFS on a bootable floppy (maybe with ppp...) to do simple internet telephony... - be as easy to use as a telephone, especially for point-to-point communications, so that one can possibly use it even without a screen, just a keyboard and the audio device (i.e. feedback comes through the headset, as in a telephone.) I and others already have some working code, which already interoperates with vat, and turns out to be quite small: prova# ls -l tel.tgz -rw-rw-r-- 1 luigi wheel 5156 Nov 25 18:13 tel.tgz prova# size tel text data bss dec hex 12288 4096 63776 80160 13920 I am calling for suggestions on two things: * what would you like the program to do ? remember that the program should remain small, so I am not too keen on including all the fancy stuff that vat does; e.g. RTCP support will be minimal, mixing different sources might not be implemented, etc. Among things I have in mind: - telephone-like commands, e.g. d dial h hangup r record p play a file - select source between mic, line and some audio file (so one can play previous recordings); - record conversations; - look names in a database so I can simply type d luigi to connect to luigi's "tel"phone (ip address/port are in a database) - what should be its name ? I have used the name "tel" for the first prototipe, which suggests the functionality (telephone) and is short to type. Surprisingly no app that I know is using this name, and hopefully nobody will be able to register the "tel" trademark and then sue us for improper usage of the name (see the recent issue on games...) There are of course alternatives, one could be aat (ascii audioconferencing tool) and in general i would go for a short and simple-to-type name. Feedback appreciated, and if someone has already some code like this, or wants to help in this effort, I'll be glad to cooperate. [P.S. sources for the current version of "tel" should be available in a couple of days once I have debugged GSM operation and possibly added LPC support] Cheers Luigi -----------------------------+-------------------------------------- Luigi Rizzo | Dip. di Ingegneria dell'Informazione email: luigi@iet.unipi.it | Universita' di Pisa tel: +39-50-568533 | via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 PISA (Italy) fax: +39-50-568522 | http://www.iet.unipi.it/~luigi/ _____________________________|______________________________________