Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] User Interface
From: Paul Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Fri Jul 27 2001 - 15:47:49 EEST
>I would like to add that I feel it is the ideas that are more important
>than the individual apps. Each one has different strong points. Things
>progress so much faster with the sound editors if we combined these
>ideas.
>
>That is where the true value of the Gimp lies. It's not the useful gui
>design but the fact that the code can be extended in so many ways and is
>constantly evolving. It also serves as a focal point for a large
>community of multimedia specialists.
I would point out here that snd has had the same kind of capabilities
as the GIMP in the realm of audio for many years now. One might argue
even more power, given that it uses Guile for the scripting language.
Yet nobody (well, OK, very few people) have jumped into snd and done
all kinds of cool extensions and widgets. So before you jump to any
conclusions about the value of extensibility, I'd like to hear why snd
hasn't become the darling of the audio world, at least on Unix-like
systems.
I have my own theories, of course :)
>No-one has to stop working on their specialist project unless they want
>to. What I want to know is why is it so difficult for the people making
>the editing software to cooperate?
As I said before, its not that we wouldn't cooperate if we agreed on
the project's goals. But we don't, and so the kind of tight, intimate
cooperation of say, the Apache project, isn't appropriate here.
If and when a particular program really gains critical mass (and of
course, I'm really hoping it will be ardour, but it could just as
easily be GLAME, or Audacity or ecasound or something else), I expect
what will happen is that new audio developers will work with that
codebase to improve and extend it and include the functionality
present in similar programs. gradually, the momentum behind other
projects will fade, though perhaps not. At that time, you'll be seeing
at lot more Apache-like cooperation. But we're not at that point
yet. Someone wants to get to A, someone else wants to get to B. Whats
the point of cooperating on two different destinations?
--p
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