[linux-audio-dev] TAP-plugins reverb presets

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 04:48:09PM +0000, Steve Harris wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 04, 2004 at 04:59:31 +0100, Alfons Adriaensen wrote:
> > I had a look at the TAP RDF file, and compared the useful contents to the 
> > file lenght. The ratio of these two puts RDF in the 'bloated' category.
> > And it's not easy to read or write at all.
> 
> It is not a problem if you use a library.

That doesn't make it less bloated :-)

> > What is more disturbing is that there are now at least 3 ways to obtain info
> > on a LADSPA plugin port:
> > 
> > 1. form the port descriptors, 
> > 2. by interpreting the name of the port (e.g. 'latency'),
> 
> That was partly my fault, and its not good, but the latency value can
> depend on input port values, so I couldn't think of an alternative.
> 
> I'm begining to think that it should have been a fixed value (in RDF of
> course ;) and plugins with varying latnecy shouldn't be corrected for).
> 
> > 3. from the RDF file, which may repeat or contradict some of 1.
> 
> Mostly default values. RDF defaults for LADSPA predate ladspa.h default
> hints, which are a hack.

Didn't know that.
 
> > To me this is a mess. It should be perfectly possible to extend the port
> > descriptors in such a way that things like preset names, scale ticks, 
> > units etc. are available from there. 
> 
> It would be, but its hard to keep binary compatibility and wouldnt it be
> better to just have one extensible metadata format that you can use for
> ports descriptions, scales, defaults, and presets?

Well, you don't expect the host to compile and link the source code (this
should be perfectly possible of course). If it gets the code in a compiled
form that can (almost) be directly executed, why not do the same for the
all the data it needs ? 

And if a second (text) file is used, I'd much prefer something simpler than
XML. A good candidate could be OSC for example. Any command language can be
used for configuration as well.

-- 
Fons