Subject: [linux-audio-dev] SBLive driver status - recap of events..
From: Ivar Vasara (ivar_AT_vcn.bc.ca)
Date: ke marras 03 1999 - 14:35:56 EST
When Creative open sourced their SBLive drivers there was quite a cheer
from the user community, but developers were skeptical, especially since
the info at the Creative website at the time was misleading in a negative
sense. In particular, it was unclear whether the dsp interface would be
open sourced and what Creative meant when they mentioned a seperate binary
driver as well. (If the dsp wasn't opened, the SBLive would be 'just another
sound card' and not justify it's premium price)
Below is a transcript of a recent exchange on the Alsa-devel mailing list,
and it should help clear things up...
(also, it was made clear that the creative binary driver was basically the
open source driver precompiled for people afraid of gcc.
ie: not involving proprietary code)
---------------------------
From:"Jacob Hawley" <jhawley_AT_creaf.com>
1999-11-03 13:47:12
Thanks. I needed my feathers un ruffled.
So far I have delivered on everything I promised to in my "Stated Plan"
posted to SlashDot in February. For those that don't want to find the mail
here is a short recap:
- Release a binary (Done)
- Work on a Source / Binary version (Done)
- Work on an Open Source version (Done)
- Work on a software development kit with docs, sample source, etc. (we
are working on it).
I need to reiterate also that we have an army of programmers on the
Windows stuff. While there are only 3 of us working on the Linux stuff --
and this is only part time because we have to deliver products as well.
Part of the reason I have pushed so hard internally for open source is so
that I would be able to have more people helping to improve the driver.
Well now that the driver is open source, that is happening. In 1 day we
received 9 patches to the driver (Jon is integrating them now and
committing them to CVS). This is exactly what I expected, and I am happy
that people took the time to improve the code.
Obviously, the community wants to program the DSP. Well that isn't
trivial, and in fact it can be destructive to things such as speakers. We
are trying to think about the best way to teach people about the DSP.
Right now there is in the source basic configuration of the DSP, source
routing information, and DSP setup information. I am actually looking
right now for some public domain effects (Reverb, Chorus, Flange) that I
could port to our DSP as examples. But not surpisingly there isn't a lot
out there.
Also keep in mind it took our experts almost a year to get the effects
written for a DSP that they fully understood. It is non-trivial to program
this thing and to take full advantage of its power.
Jon Taylor will be heading up further development on this driver and our
expectation is that folks from the Linux community will provide feedback
and improvements. If people still want to criticize the way were doing it,
I guess I just don't have time for them -- I would rather focus on the
people providing positive input and suggestions so that we can improve
things.
Best Regards,
Jake
-----Original Message-----
From: Jaroslav Kysela <perex_AT_suse.cz>
To: Jacob Hawley <jhawley_AT_creaf.com>
Cc: ALSA development <alsa-devel_AT_alsa-project.org>; Bernd Kaindl
<bk_AT_suse.de>
Date: Wednesday, November 03, 1999 12:51 AM
>Jake, I - as the only one official speaker for the ALSA team - doesn't
>agree with some people on the ALSA development mailing list. I'm
>personally very glad, that I can do the SB Live driver for ALSA which
>would be comparable with your current sources/binaries available for
>Linux. I also undestands the positions of others on this mailing list,
>that Creative might prevent to release full information which we need
>to create a driver which fully exploits the EMU10k chip. We'll simply
>stay on the half of the path in this case and there is more cheap
>hardware with same functionality on the current market.
>
>To all people on this list:
>
>My feeling is this: I want to create the basic driver which will contain
>all features available in the current driver from Creative. After this
>step, we could begin a discussion, if we can get from SB Live hardware
>more than the current driver from Creative does. I think that all
problems
>are caused, that Creative released only source code. If we have had some
>programming datasheet (like for Trident chipsets), this situation
>would be probably never occured, because nobody has some chance to
>complain.
>
>Jake, I'm looking for our next co-operation and I hope that your
>sentences in your e-mail will fly away.
>
> Best regards,
> Jaroslav
>
>-----
>Jaroslav Kysela <perex_AT_suse.cz>
>SuSE Linux http://www.suse.com
>ALSA project http://www.alsa-project.org
------
-----------------------------snip----------------------------------
relevant links----
Creative:
http://developer.soundblaster.com/linux/
http://opensource.creative.com/
Alsa-devel mailing list archives:
http://hyppo.screwdriver.net/list.phtml?archive=alsa-devel
Hope this helps,
Ivar
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