Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Realtime
From: yodaiken_AT_fsmlabs.com
Date: Wed Jun 28 2000 - 06:39:26 EEST
On Tue, Jun 27, 2000 at 11:20:15PM -0400, Paul Barton-Davis wrote:
> the ALSA drivers currently represent a minimum of 64000 C statements
> (i counted semicolons in the files; there are 174,000 lines in total,
> including comments).
>
> although i strongly suspect that most of the work involved in porting
> them to RTLinux could be done with a portability "wrapper", i also
> strongly suspect that we'd have to go over every single line of every
> file and check it for various assumptions.
My guess is not, but code settles all such questions.
> >RTLinux modules are like drivers -- if you can accept drivers in kernel
> >space, you should not have a problem with RT components.
>
> Au contraire. Drivers are, ideally, "write once" programs. In the real
> world, its never quite like that, but once a device driver is done,
> its done, and changes are only usually necessary when a kernel API
> change occurs or some new information about the device comes to light.
>
> By contrast, actual applications tend to keep changing, and often in
> dramatic and comprehensive ways. This makes it hard to feel confident
> about running an RT component, whereas its fairly easy to feel quite
> safe about a driver that has been in use for a month or so.
I think that the correct design would be to make RT components
for audio be, essentially, a library that would be stable.
> i think, however, that all of this is moot. For almost all of us, the
> performance offered by Ingo's patches to 2.2.{10,11,12,13,14,15} is
> more than adequate. Using RTLinux involves, at the absolute minimum,
> some real work, a definite learning experience, and possibly a
> redesign of already operational applications. To gain what ? Better
> performance than we actually need. victor, its a tough sell ;)
Someone told me that about "C" in 1980. How's that for a stunningly
irrelevant response?
I think that the motivations of performance and intellectual
curiosity are strong.
-- --------------------------------------------------------- Victor Yodaiken FSMLabs: www.fsmlabs.com www.rtlinux.com FSMLabs is a servicemark and a service of VJY Associates L.L.C, New Mexico.
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