Re: [OT] ALSA userspace API complexity

[Patrizio Bassi]

Jaroslav Kysela ha scritto:
> On Wed, 4 Jan 2006, Pete Zaitcev wrote:
> 
> 
>>On Wed, 4 Jan 2006 09:37:55 +0000, Alistair John Strachan <s0348365@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>
>>>>2) ALSA API is to complicated: most applications opens single sound
>>>>   stream.
>>>
>>>FUD and nonsense. []
>>>http://devzero.co.uk/~alistair/alsa/
>>
>>That's the kicker, isn't it? Once you get used to it, it's a workable
>>API, if kinky and verbose. I have a real life example, too:
>> http://people.redhat.com/zaitcev/linux/mpg123-0.59r-p3.diff
>>But arriving on the solution costed a lot of torn hair. Look at this
>>bald head here! And who is going to pay my medical bills when ALSA
>>causes me ulcers, Jaroslav?
> 
> 
> Well, the ALSA primary goal is to be the complete HAL not hidding the 
> extra hardware capabilities to applications. So API might look a bit 
> complicated for the first glance, but the ALSA interface code for simple 
> applications is not so big, isn't?
> 
> Also, note that app developers are not forced to use ALSA directly - there 
> is a lot of "portable" sound API libraries having an ALSA backend doing
> this job quite effectively. We can add a simple (like OSS) API layer 
> into alsa-lib, but I'm not sure, if it's worth to do it. Perhaps, adding
> some support functions for the easy PCM device initialization might be
> a good idea.
> 
> 						Jaroslav
> 

considering that alsa API and drivers is pretty stable i see no problem
in OSS removal.
When writing a program adding oss compatibility seems faster, but,
creates lots of problems.
check the skype example (yes i know it's closed-source). 99% of sound
problems users have is due to OSS driver usage.

that's a big problem. Needs a radical solution. Considering aoss works
in 50% of cases i suggest aoss improvement and not OSS keeping in kernel.

A good idea could be an OSS API layer over Alsa-lib...but i personally
don't know how much can that costs, considering you should link against
alsa-lib too.

This discussion seems a no-sense.
Kernel API continues to change every -rc and noone cares that.
OSS has been deprecated for a lot, and it's as old as moon.

	Patrizio

--
Patrizio Bassi
www.patriziobassi.it
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