Re: [linux-audio-dev] XAP spec - early scribbles

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Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] XAP spec - early scribbles
From: David Olofson (david_AT_olofson.net)
Date: Sun Mar 02 2003 - 00:18:45 EET


On Saturday 01 March 2003 17.07, torbenh_AT_gmx.de wrote:
[...]
> > If we do this on the right level, we can have both. We definitely
> > should have a standard graph description (and preset) file format
> > anyway, and all we need is a way for plugin authors to provide
> > useful subgraphs with their plugins.
>
> did you specify a serialization method on the plugins ?

Well, plugins should be scheduled in "flow order" - that's all there
is to it. (Oh, and this feedback loop issue, of course.) What do you
mean, exactly?

> how will this be handled ?

Subgraphs are just high level descriptions of how to connect any few
plugins into something that you can throw into a net. This could be a
desription of how to set up a mixer using the parts in a plugin pack,
or it could be a user defined "patch", constructed from just any
plugins. Physically, it would most probably be XML based.

Just a file format, that is - although the host SDK might contain code
to helt hosts support it.

> > As to user interfaces, this is where many->one and one->many
> > (DSP->GUI) gets in. You might want to have a single "panel" for a
> > mixer, even if it's constructed from multiple DSP plugins.
>
> This is already implemented in galan and i find it very
> nice...
>
> I have been talking with a friend about the gui issue...
> and he said that an interface which lets the plugin return
> a bitmap would do the trick to make it toolkit independent...

Sure. It would also be insanely slow - especially if you run the
plugin remotely. It would also be totally incapable of taking
advantage of any kind of h/w accelerated rendering, such as X and GDI
2D acceleration, Direct3D, OpenGL and whatnot.

GUIs are not to be part of the DSP plugin binary, period.

> we could add some sort of slider interface also but
> this was not the issue...

Well, I think the current "hinted control" solution (very similar to
LADSPA) will work fine for that. Add grouping hints or XML, and hosts
can construct real nice (G)UIs for most plugins.

This is (almost) completely irrelevant for plugins that can't really
be used without custom GUIs, though.

//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

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| RT and off-line synth. Scripting. Sample accurate timing. |
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