8 Apr
2008
8 Apr
'08
11:25 a.m.
The fragmentation of Linux audio documentation is
perhaps an unavoidable
side-effect of the relative lack of focus in this stage of Linux audio
development. I don't mean that individual projects are unfocused, I mean
that there's little sense of a central authority or clearing house for
relating the activities of various development tracks. Thus, everyone
goes about their own work with little or no sense of its relationship to
other activities (other than the ALSA/JACK axis), and this situation is
perfectly understandable. There are few enough developers working on
Linux audio projects, and they cannot reasonably be expected to keep up
with every other development (in Linux and elsewheres).
I think this is also the greatest ailment of the Linux audio community.
Perhaps it stems from the fact that everyone is excited about the 2%
inspiration new project offers but is taken aback when the first 2% finally
disappear and one is left with 98% perspiration. Such projects never go past
the 0.3 version and eventually join the endless ranks of "potentially really
cool but totally buggy and unfinished" software tools.
This is why I've been lobbying hard to get all the online resources into one
place. That's why we have apps.linuxaudio.org docs.linuxaudio.org
lists.linuxaudio.org etc. (yes some of these are placeholders waiting for
users to contribute). We need more perspiration than inspiration at this
point as that will be the only thing that will bring us closer to some of
the noble goals mentioned here.
ico