[linux-audio-dev] Re: desktop audio resumed

[Kjetil Svalastog Matheussen <k.s.matheussen@notam02.no>]

> On Mon, 2005-07-04 at 02:32 +0200, Kjetil Svalastog Matheussen  wrote:
>> Lee Revell:
>> >> It was in response to problems such as these that I began work on a
>> >> half-kernel, half-userspace system for emulating OSS devices.  It's
>> been
>> >> a while since I've done anything with it but if there's any interest
>> in
>> >> such a system I could put my code (such as it is) up for download.
>> >
>> > No!!!  That's exactly the wrong approach, it will only encourage
>> > applications to use the OSS API.  Do you really still want to be using
>> > the same ancient binary-only flashplayer/realplayer plugin for 5 more
>> > years?
>> >
>> > Why don't you ask the Skype developers when they plan to support ALSA?
>> > Or figure out why it crashes with aoss?
>> >
>>
>> I strongly disagree with you about this. Ross approach sounds like whats
>> needed. The OSS API is easier to understand and leads to less bugs and
>> less programming time. For programs like SKYPE, mediaplayers and other
>> types of non-realtime-sound applications, I really think programmers
>> should go for OSS instead of accessing ALSA directly.
>> And, as mentioned before, ALSA is linux only (except for alsa 0.5 which
>> was partly used in older versions QNX I think).
>>
>
> It's just as easy to read() and write() with ALSA as OSS.  And if you
> were designing a cross platform audio app now, OSS would also be a poor
> choice, you would use PortAudio.
>

Okey, sorry, I don't know that much about ALSA.

But I think it would be wrong to remove the OSS API anyway. Many old
programs that only use OSS will probably not be updated to use a different
API, so removing it will irriate people a lot.

And I don't think your argument about removing the OSS api to avoid
encouraging is valid at all. If there is a nice bridge for OSS that calls
alsa/dmix or jack or something, I don't see anything wrong about (certain)
programs (like SKYPE, mediaplayers...) using OSS.