[linux-audio-dev] Some ALSA mixer API questions

Hey everyone, I'm working my way through a simple mixer application using ALSA's mixer API. However, the mixer section of the documentation is blank, so I've taken to reading through amixer's source code to try and figure out how it does it's things. It's a bit hard to piece together how some of the stuff goes together. I've got the basics of getting/setting volume values and getting volume ranges from mixer elements. I'm a bit confused by how to get element types. It seems like amixer opens the ctl device to get a mixer element's type? Am I right about this? It seems like a very confusing API to require the ctl device to get info on an element from the mixer device. If it does require a handle to the ctl device, could someone give me the quick overview of how this works together in the big picture? If not, I'd appreciate a quick explanation of the right way to determine the type of a mixer element. -- Ross Vandegrift ross(a)kallisti.us "The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell." --St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37