[LAU] why shouldn't clients autoconnect to jack

[Fons Adriaensen]

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 11:14:10PM +0100, Kjetil S. Matheussen wrote:

> The problem with jack is that application
> writers simply don't bother to do all the work required
> to handle configurable connection handling,
> and instead they just autoconnect to the physical outputs.

So they are the ones responsable for the resulting mess.
 
> If jack had autoconnected by default, we wouldn't have
> had this problem.

We would still have it.

Whatever autoconnect scheme jack could provide, it
would not please some app authors. They would want
to be sure to be connected to playback-1 and -2
while jack might connect them to -7 and -8, and
that would actually make more sense than wanting
to autoconnect in the first place. So they would
just bypass jack's --no-autoconnect option by doing
it themselves.

You can't stop people from behaving in uncivilised
ways or being rude by law, nor by being polite
yourself. In the same way you can't stop apps from
autoconnecting by trying to make it impossible, or
by providing an alternative. The problem is not
technical, it is the attitude of application authors
thinking they can decide in the user's place.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

Io lo dico sempre: l'Italia è troppo stretta e lunga.