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Date:      Tue, 4 Nov 1997 13:28:41 -0200 (EDT)
From:      Joao Carlos Mendes Luis <jonny@coppe.ufrj.br>
To:        luigi@labinfo.iet.unipi.it (Luigi Rizzo)
Cc:        jonny@coppe.ufrj.br, multimedia@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: audio modules for various applications
Message-ID:  <199711041528.NAA20512@gaia.coppe.ufrj.br>
In-Reply-To: <199711041028.LAA20006@labinfo.iet.unipi.it> from Luigi Rizzo at "Nov 4, 97 11:28:43 am"

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#define quoting(Luigi Rizzo)
// I am not familiar about the Sun audio API to say how good or bad
// it is.

The biggest win is that it's more standard.

Except from Linux Toys, everything I've ever seen in Free Multimedia
runs on Sun hardware.

// >From what I see in audio_sun.cc in the vat sources, but I don't
// particularly like the idea of having a large data structure with
// a lot of spare fields which must be carefully initialized before
// passing them to the ioctl() calls...  plus i am a bit uncertain on
// the presence and semantics of ioctl() which support synchronization
// with the audio device... plus I am not sure if it supports the
// concept of an input mixer...

It has an input mixer.  Every Sun I've ever seen can select from
Mic and Line inputs, and Speaker and Line outputs.  Some SS5 may
also select a CD Audio input.

On the programming side, Sun systems usually have a /usr/demo/SOUNDS
directory with include files and some example sources.  If you can't
find anything nearer, I may create an account for you here.

Also, NetBSD sources may have everything you want.  I really think that
a peek at NetBSD implementation would be a good start.

// The OSS/Voxware interface does _some_ things in a nice way, and
// some in a way that I really don't like. But the reason to use OSS
// instead of SUN is that there is a commercial version of the driver,
// and far too many linux apps which use that one. We simply have no
// choice (from a "marketing" point of view).

I think that there are less Linux Apps than Sun Apps.  And only those
with synth support may not run on Sun, but those also don't yet run
on your driver.

If the Linux source compatibility is really that important, there
could be some sort of compat devices.  In NetBSD there's a compat/ossaudio
directory.

Also, /dev/audio could be the "Sun Device", and /dev/dsp the "Linux
Device".

// I am looking at the definition of a new API for audio device, aimed
// at minimizing the number of calls, and giving more support to
// synchronization. But this will not be SUN either...

If you need a new API, why not to use something compatible ?

Sound Blaster is the worst audio card in the market, but they are
"compatible".  They were the first, and now they have the market.
Why fight compatibility ?  If you wnat something better, do it as
an extension.  NetBSD also has some "BSD extensions", as described
in their /usr/include/sys/audioio.h

					Jonny

--
Joao Carlos Mendes Luis			jonny@gta.ufrj.br
+55 21 290-4698				jonny@coppe.ufrj.br
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro	UFRJ/COPPE/CISI
PGP fingerprint: 29 C0 50 B9 B6 3E 58 F2  83 5F E3 26 BF 0F EA 67



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