[linux-audio-user] Re: prebuilt tools (long!)

[Patrick Shirkey]

Jonathan Segel wrote:

>     i am definitely of two minds on this. one side says that, yes, no 
> compromise should be made by those who know how to make a thing do what 
> they want it to do simply to allow others do it as well. in this way 
> there can be major forward momentum in the growth of a system, but it 
> also makes an elite group of experts that must be deferred to in order 
> to be able to use their wisdom.

Welcome to the *nix way :)

> this can have deleterious effects upon 
> the culture of the users, besides just making some cache of coolness 
> that comes with being "in the know" (while appearing to be snobs from 
> those that wish they could be in the know themselves!) that is 
> completely irrelevant to the real situations, yet completely within 
> human nature, wherein the development must take long and winding routes 
> to reach the majority of the users who cannot "hack the pace", pun 
> intended.

It's hard to tell if people are snobs or just ahead of the curve.

>      for myself, i see the allure of learning to stay on the bleeding 
> edge of technology and to make music from software that is coming into 
> being daily from a group of people who are likewise inclined. i am one 
> of those people who has to take a preset apart to make something of 
> their own before thinking that they are making their own music. and 
> while i would love to believe i am special somehow for being that way, 
> politically i think i am far too populist to allow it to become elitism. 
> so that part of me wants to make the hard things get easier, perhaps.
> 

Things do get easier and also progressively more abstract. There are 
points where things that once seemed extremely difficult beocme daily 
chores and then you forget about trying to make a new gui for it because 
you found another way to do it and there are more pressing things that 
could be worked on.

However this approach is not going to sell Linux apps to the majority so 
  anyone who is in a frame of mind to make the niggly things work in a 
simple way should spend any free time they have on doing it.





-- 
Patrick Shirkey - Boost Hardware Ltd.
Http://www.boosthardware.com
Http://www.djcj.org - The Linux Audio Users guide
========================================

Being on stage with the band in front of crowds shouting, "Get off! No! 
We want normal music!", I think that was more like acting than anything 
I've ever done.

Goldie, 8 Nov, 2002
The Scotsman