21 Nov
2003
21 Nov
'03
6:41 p.m.
Ross Vandegrift wrote:
there has to be something that everybody will/can use and will not
create a weak impersonations of BSOD while running (like programs
freezes when they try to access the soundcard, often it's not that easy
to find out that it's waiting for the soundcard (for general users))
perhaps dmix in alsa is that something...
erik
On Fri, Nov 21, 2003 at 07:19:14AM -0800, Erik Steffl
wrote:
double shrug! this is not the problem of the non free apps, this is a
problem of _bad_ infrastructure (or perhaps unfinished - imagine a world
without X, with only berlin, ggi, svgalib etc. - that's an analogy of
current audio situation).
example: set mozilla to use arts, set xmms to
use arts etc... and
then go and surf the web, flash, realplayer etc. all do not use arts and
thus your mozilla blocks (looks frozen) on number of pages... (I suspect
it's mostly flash, used in banners, not playing any sound but still
trying to open audio)
::shrugs:: If you use non-free software, you get what you're fed. If you use free software that doesn't support arts
and just needs to go
"boing", adding an arts (or even esd) interface isn't *that* involved.
In fact both have /dev/dsp wrappers that may or may not work already (I
can't say I've ever used said wrappers).
free or non-free it should work and it doesn't. yes I could fix some
of them or bug developers to fix it or pay somebody to fix or... but the
important part of free software is that it actually _works_, nobody
has time to fix everything... (even for values of everything limited to
the programs that one uses)
that's
why the problem of multiple applications trying to use
soundcard has to be solved by something that pretty much everybody uses
That's why JACK is really the key software bit, not arts/esd - JACK
gives a metal interface that lets lower performance apps use a
virtualized interface. JACK can mitigate the hardware, provide high
performance apps high performance, and send out a beep when something
wants it.