Paul, did this effort result in the list of tasks that you were seeking?
Maybe I missed it, but I've not seen any feedback on the result and
where it went. I hope it went somewhere and is being worked on. Thanks
you very much for your contributions.
Marv
On Monday 12 December 2005 11:47, Paul Davis wrote:
> ( LAU folk: this is an initial outline of an email I want to dispatch
> to the desktop-architects list in the very near future. Your comments
> are eagerly sought. Note that this section specifically seeks to
> avoid any discussion of implementations or specific approachs. I
> would like to fully flesh out the list of tasks ASAP )
>
> Making Sound Just Work
> ------------------------
>
> One of the "second tier" of requirements mentioned several times at
> the OSDL Portland Linux Desktop Architects workshop was "making audio
> on Linux just work". Many people find it easy to leave this
> requirement lying around in various lists of goals and requirements,
> but before we can make any progress on defining a plan to implement
> the goal, we first need to define it rather more precisely.
>
> DEFINING THE GOAL
> =================
>
> The list below is a set of tasks that a user could reasonably expect
> to perform on a computer running Linux that has access to zero, one
> or more audio interfaces.
>
> The desired task should either work, or produce a sensible and
> comprehensible error message explaining why it failed. For example,
> attempting to control input gain on a device that has no hardware
> mixer should explain that the device has no controls for input gain.
>
> PLAYBACK
>
> - play a compressed audio file
> * user driven (e.g. play(1))
> * app driven (e.g. {kde,gnome_play}_audiofile())
> - play a PCM encoded audio file (specifics as above)
> - hear system sounds
> - VOIP
> - game audio
> - music composition
> - music editing
> - video post production
>
> RECORDING
>
> - record from hardware inputs
> * use default audio interface
> * use other audio interface
> * specify which h/w input to use
> * control input gain
> - record from other application(s)
> - record from live (network-delivered) compressed audio
> streams
>
>
> MIXING
>
> - control h/w mixer device (if any)
>
> * allow use of a generic app for this
> * NOTE to non-audio-focused readers: the h/w mixer
> is part of the audio interface that is used
> to control signal levels, input selection
> for recording, and other h/w specific features.
> Some pro-audio interfaces do not have a h/w mixer,
> most consumer ones do. It has almost nothing
> to do with "hardware mixing" which describes
> the ability of the h/w to mix together multiple
> software-delivered audio data streams.
>
> - multiple applications using soundcard simultaneously
> - control application volumes independently
> - provide necessary apps for controlling specialized
> hardware (e.g. RME HDSP, ice1712, ice1724, liveFX)
>
> ROUTING
>
> - route audio to specific h/w among several installed
> devices - route audio between applications
> - route audio across network
>
> MULTIUSER
>
> - which of the above should work in a multi-user scenario?
>
> MISC
>
> - use multiple soundcards as a single logical device
