[Jack-Devel] Odp: Re: New build of QJackCtl for Windows

[Tim E. Real]

On Thursday, May 12, 2016 07:27:40 AM Paul Davis wrote:
> Port aliases were almost never used for anything, and the current build of
> qjackctl has support for them removed.

No! 
If you are thinking of this, please don't remove alias support from Jack!
Or at least replace it with some default metadata containing similar 
 'friendly' port names, as I had requested some time ago.

Aliases (at least the default ones supplied by Jack)
 are very important for MusE.

We use them to reconnect ports that are not available,
 when those ports become available again. (USB midi etc.)
A sort of 'session management' feature. It works quite well.

The standard 'canonical' names (System::midi_playback_1)
 provided by ports are /not/ sufficient for this task
 since the numeric portion is derived from simple 'up counters'
 which change value every time a device is re-plugged.

I can provide more details if needed.
We look for which ever port name or alias does /not/ 
 contain the word 'System:', if possible.

Thanks.
Tim.

> 
> On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 2:49 AM, Hanspeter Portner <ventosus at airpost.net>
> 
> wrote:
> > On 12.05.2016 08:26, Pawel wrote:
> > > What about aliases ?
> > 
> > Which one? a port can have up to 2 aliases...
> > 
> > > Dnia Czwartek, 12 Maja 2016 08:22 Hanspeter Portner <
> > 
> > ventosus at airpost.net> napisał(a)
> > 
> > >> On 12.05.2016 06:27, aledez0 wrote:
> > >>> is there any way to list the connections by how there are in the
> > 
> > project file
> > 
> > >>> instead of by alphabetical order?
> > >> 
> > >> YES (theoretically)
> > >> 
> > >> There is a way, by means of the metadata api [1] via the metadata key
> > >> 'http://jackaudio.org/metadata/order' [2], but the trio of JACK client,
> > >> server and patchbay must support this for it to work.
> > >> 
> > >> * the client sets the order of its ports via 'jack_set_property'
> > >> * the server stores the metadata in a database
> > >> * the patchbay reads the metadata to order ports accordingingly
> > >> 
> > >> NO (practically)
> > >> 
> > >> * only few clients and patchbays support this yet
> > >> * JACK1 implements the metadata API, JACK2 still does NOT
> > >> 
> > >>  > in mixbus 3 once you have named the tracks
> > >>> 
> > >>> they don't show up in the connection window in the order they are in
> > 
> > the
> > 
> > >>> project window.
> > >> 
> > >> [1] http://jackaudio.org/api/group__Metadata.html
> > >> [2] https://github.com/drobilla/jackey/blob/master/jackey.h