On Friday 26 September 2008 00:01:51 Wesley Johnson wrote: > I find that ALSA is inadequate for my needs and so I will have to abandon > it. > I need real-time response and the ability to handle multiple computer > generated sounds simultaneously. If you want real real-time response, you should really use Jack (and possibly a realtime kernel). It's more or less what ASIO is on Windows, as far as latency is concerned. But you're not very detailed about what you are/were trying to achieve, so I can't really tell if it would work in your case. To give an example, Hydrogen (the drum machine) is an app that does something different than playing single music files, and alsa seems to handle it without problems (though Jack is recommended for latency-free performance, but this is less of an issue if you use it stand-alone). > I have wasted too much time trying to get programs to react through ALSA, > it apparantly was designed with a mind-set on playing music files. > I do not play music files and have no use for all the media players. The > programs that I am writing will not be playing a music file. > > I know what has to be done and how to do it, but I know from ALSA history > that it is not worth the effort to make such suggestions. > The latest incident was when I submitted some suggested inclusions for an > INSTALL doc, that would help some users avoid the trouble I had, and I got > flamed at for my trouble. I am not involved in the project myself, but I wonder if this wasn't one guy not seeing the importance, and maybe if you took it to someone else, it'd get the proper attention. Also, the unofficial alsa wiki can be edited by anyone, so maybe it's a good idea to add your suggestions there as a separate help page. But this is again something I can't say a lot about without knowing the details, so I apologize if I'm missing the point. Keep in mind that building ALSA from source is generally not something e.g. an Ubuntu user should be involved with, unless he already knows what he's doing. Generally, the distributions should take care of providing a working ALSA setup. I can imagine several reasons why some suggestions won't make it to an actual INSTALL doc, however, the flame is unjustified in all cases, I guess. It's just that a lot of devs are excellent programmers, but don't feel like doing user support, I guess. This is something that depends somewhat on the structure of an open source project (i.e. the right people handling the right issues). > Suggestions are received with anger, direct questions are given the silent > brush-off, there is no attempt to even discuss the subject raised, so I > expect the ususal rude and flaming knee-jerk, 10 seconds of thought, > non-responsive, responses from the usual people. > I know that the ALSA responders will not like hearing that, but what point > would there be in painting over the facts and feelings now. It was useless > and rude to reply entire long emails, just to bury some snipe comments in > it, while totally ignoring the question and subject raised. I have read > other alsa-user email treated the same way; and while it is not universal > among all responders, it is persistantly present from some. I have had mixed experiences with ALSA support, however, this is all completely free so I can't really complain. These people have a lot to battle, including manufacturers that refuse to release specs, users who don't hesitate to give their opinions while not seeing the bigger picture and implications of certain issues (not saying that this is the case in your case, but lack of details often leads to miscommunication and you're not exactly forthcoming), cheap commodity hardware with all its flaws requiring compromises and workarounds, as well as users that come and complain because their $20 soundcard provides sub-par performance. You say you know how your issues can be fixed... have you even tried to talk to someone with the proper power within the project about it? Are you aware of the implications of your proposed fixes? In the best case, you would start sending patches. Frankly, a flame or a response at all is in many cases more than you'd ever get from Creative Labs, Microsoft or some random Taiwanese manufacturer, though that is obviously not an excuse... but it puts things in perspective. > > ... > > I have waited to see how I felt after a while, ..... and how I feel is that > it is not worth the aggravation and frustration to try again. > > Wesley Johnson, Linux user since 1994 > Project'Resin -- Wesley Johnson > Embedded programming, Research and Development, since 1986 > > P.S. ALSA is having alot of problems due to mislabeled mixer controls, and > not a word that would show that any developer even recognizes the problem. This is not something I am familiar with, though, I imagine this can only be fixed if users started reporting these mislabelings. This is also something that could easily be fixed with small and simple patches. I'm not sure if anyone with the skills is willing to accept hardware and create patches, but I imagine that's the most reliable way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by the Moblin Your Move Developer's challenge Build the coolest Linux based applications with Moblin SDK & win great prizes Grand prize is a trip for two to an Open Source event anywhere in the world http://moblin-contest.org/redirect.php?banner_id=100&url=/ _______________________________________________ Alsa-user mailing list Alsa-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/alsa-user
