Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Still I cannot understand why...
From: Paul Winkler (slinkp23_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Dec 18 2001 - 01:24:10 EET
On Mon, Dec 17, 2001 at 11:58:30PM +1000, Mark Constable wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Dec 2001 20:43, Jörn Nettingsmeier wrote:
> > * it is a common denominator among many unices, and it works well
> > for trivial applications. think portability.
>
> Why ? I use Linux, this list is linux-audio-devel.
I think you're lacking a bit in historical perspective. For quite a
long time, *most* of the actually useable apps we had came from other
unices. When I first came here (1997?), the best soundfile editors I
could find were DAP, MiXViews, and Snd. IIRC, *all* of those were
developed on SGI or some other non-linux system.
And it wasn't really so long ago that we had no sound at
all. Considering that Linus originally thought that Linux would never
run on anything very different from the particular x86 hardware he
had, I don't think we should fault him too much for agreeing to an
expedient general solution at a time when there was nothing but a few
unrelated drivers for a few soundcards.
> > * thanks to oss, many of the excellent composer tools from the next
> > and sgi world have percolated through to linux way back when the
> > linux audio scene was far less evolved and far more desolate than it
> > is now. think critical mass here.
>
> There are no "critical mass (appeal)" apps anywhere that
> I've seen.
Critical mass for developers. How many of us would be here if linux
wasn't such a great platform for running the "fine tools" mentioned?
Would ALSA be as well designed if there had been no OSS to show us the
flaws of a first solution? Or if ALSA had been rushed into the kernel
years ago because there was no other general sound driver system? I
suspect not.
> That attitude just extends the life of a dead-end system.
> I would consider it a great disservice to encourage anyone
> to "start using" OSS based code, especially at this stage
> of the game... 1/2 a year ago... maybe.
I sort of agree... but actually I hope that soon people will be
writing for JACK and/or Portaudio in most cases.
> Guess what... that is _all_ most of them can do, aside
> from play mp3s... why ? What is at the core of the lack
> of ability to do anything else ?
I would say lack of *desire* to do anything else on the part of all
but a very small group... most of whom are here and/or on the alsa
lists.
--paul winkler home: http://www.slinkp.com music: http://www.reacharms.com calendars: http://www.calendargalaxy.com
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