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

[torbenh at gmx.de]

On Sat, Mar 01, 2003 at 03:03:37AM +0000, Simon Jenkins wrote:
> >In ssm I sort the network each time a connection is made/destroyed, and 
> >generate a ordered list of modules to process from the root up to the 
> >leaves. It has to cope with circular sections, which unavoidably introduce 
> >latency, but it works. It also automatically means unconnected modules 
> >don't get processed, which is nice.
> >
>
> [...]
> SSM and amble both ignore unconnected nodes which is nice if that's what you
> want, but not if its not. A general solution to the graph sorting 
> problem would
> need to at least allow for the possibility that an unconnected node 
> might need
> to be processed.
> 
> That's easily solved... but here's a problem that's not:
> 
> A general solution to the graph sorting problem would have to know about the
> I/O dependencies *inside* the nodes. This isn't usually a problem on 
> the  scale
> where a node represents, for example, a simple filter or oscillator. But 
> what about
> the scale where a node represents a quad noise gate or a reasonably 
> well-featured
> mixer (ie with inserts etc)?  Nodes like that aren't just difficult to 
> place correctly
> in the execution order... they can be *impossible* to place correctly in 
> a very large
> number of perfectly reasonable graphs: Different parts of their 
> internals need to
> be executed at different times!

then these components must be built of other components...
i dont see a reason why one wants a big complex component
if it could be built from smaller components...
(other than performace)

at least we all like UNIX, dont we ? :)
and to reduce the performace penalty of building complex components
out of many small components is the goal of XAP as i see it...


-- 
torben Hohn
http://galan.sourceforge.net -- The graphical Audio language