[linux-audio-dev] plugin loaders

[Leonard Ritter]

Hi Anthony,

I guess most of us use the sample enumeration c code included with the
LADSPA sources as starting point. This code expects a LADSPA_PATH
variable to be set. As a fallback, I suppose most programmers
added /usr/lib/ladspa:/usr/local/lib/ladspa, but all of them should
support LADSPA_PATH.

On Wed, 2006-12-20 at 15:43 -0800, Anthony Green wrote:
> I understand that LADSPA and friends specifically exclude any
> functionality around how to find and load plugins, but it seems that a
> lot can be gained by introducing some standards in this area.  
> 
> As a package of audio apps/plugins for a Linux distro, here are two of
> the problems I see:
> 
> 1. Applications are often hard-coded to look in /usr/lib/ladspa (for
> instance), when many systems may require that libraries live somewhere
> else (like /usr/lib64/ladspa for x86-64, or /usr/lib32/ladspa for
> n32-ABI MIPS Linux).  I've had to patch a lot of apps for x86-64 Fedora.
> 
> 2. We build binaries for the lowest common denominator, so the plugins
> you'll find in Fedora, for instance, don't take advantage of SSE
> hardware or instruction scheduling for different processors.  This can
> make a huge difference.  What would be nice is if we could distribute an
> RPM containing a plurality of plugin builds, and then have the
> application load the plugin matching the capabilities the execution
> platform.
> 
> Has there been any discussion around creating a plugin locator/loader
> library?   It would be nice if one could be written and then widely
> adopted by app writers.  (I'm not volunteering!)
> 
> AG
> 
> 
> 
-- 
Leonard Ritter

-- Freelance Art & Logic
-- http://www.leonard-ritter.com