Re: [linux-audio-dev] introduction & ideas

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] introduction & ideas
From: Paul Davis (pbd_AT_Op.Net)
Date: Fri Feb 22 2002 - 17:56:18 EET


>please try to be kind to each other. I am not using mail since yesterday, ok.
>The mail I've sent was multipart/mixed

sorry about that. my email handling system is now set up to attach
messages like that to just about any email that includes an HTML
attachment. it doesn't respond to any multipart/mixed messages, just
ones with HTML. i tend to takes its operation for granted.

>>>When browsing jack web page
>>>(http://jackit.sourceforge.net/docs/faq.php) I found the "How does
>>>Jack compare to...?" a bit confusing as some of those API's are not
>>>comparable per se.
>>>
>>
>> as a user, sure, they operate in quite different niches. but as a
>> *developer* i can assure that they are all comparable in the sense
>> that they are all attempts to answer a very related set of
>> questions. the more you work on sophisticated audio software, the more
>> it becomes apparent how there really aren't that many designs out
>> there for doing this stuff.
>
>As this is a *developer* mlist I am talking about how the differ regarding to
>the needs of a developer.
>
>E.g. ASIO is a Audio-IO HAL and VST is a plugin architecture. AFAIK
>the only thing they have in common is that they both are from
>Steinberg .

Not at all. They are both based on synchronous execution driven by an
periodic interrupt of some kind. The concepts behind the way a VST
host executes are actually tightly bound to the same basic ideas
behind ASIO's design. Sure, the library calls are all totally
different, but to see that is, as they say in english, "to miss the
forest for the trees".

Once you've written a plugin API or two, hacked csound to death,
written a couple of real time engines, studied the various commercial
APIs that handle plugins, audio HALs and so forth, a pattern starts to
emerge that goes far beyond "A is a plugin architecture, B is an audio
i/o HAL, C is the design of realtime engine".

The needs of developers are not satisfied by just a set of APIs to
use. Its important to have a deep understanding of the problem space
in which we are operating. Past failures to do this (or more
accurately, the learning experiences necessary to gain such an
understanding) have hampered the linux audio and MIDI development
environment, IMHO.

--p


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