On Fri, 22.08.08 14:34, Brian Cameron ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:

> >> Is this a reasonable way to solve the libcanberra backend problem
> >> (at least for now) on Solaris?  Or do people think it is really
> >> necessary to write code that links with the GStreamer or Sun Audio
> >> interfaces directly?
> > 
> > While I'm no expert, I'd say that "shelling out" is generally "a bad 
> > thing"(tm) but it's possibly good enough for now seeing as the Solaris 
> > audio backend will be rewritten over time.
> 
> I think we will likely use this plugin until we can provide something
> nicer.  I understand there is a better GStreamer based plugin that we
> could build from, so we might migrate to this.
> 
> Since it seems likely that Solaris will eventually migrate to using
> OSS, and since the OSS libcanberra plugin is under development, I think
> it is likely that Solaris will migrate to that in the long term.

Under development? It already got merged. It's ready. Will be part of
0.8 which I will release in the next week.

> I am still unclear whether PulseAudio provides any real value on
> Solaris, or any distro that would be using OSSv4-based audio interfaces.
> The ability to provide positional sounds since like an exciting feature
> that warrants deeper consideration.  

Hehe. I am no particular fan of OSS4. It is popular misconception to
reduce PA just to something that does mixing. If that was the case,
then yes, it would be completely redundant by OSS4 or dmix. 

There's plenty of docs around on the net that try to explain what PA
actually is. Try googling for them.

One of the primary reasons why I think everyone should adopt PA is the
"glitch-free" playback model, which you might already have read about on
Planet GNOME. It's something very technical, and not directly visible
to the user, but if you ask me, this is an absolute must-have for a
modern PCM audio system -- and OSS4 certainly doesn't give you
that. (to make g-f work on OSS will need some substantial hacking from
your side however, both in PA itself and probably also in OSS).

Other features PA has, besides nifty effects like positional event
sounds, and such like is: network transparency, saves/restores
volumes/devices for streams, allows users to switch streams between
devices on-the-fly, has an elaborate property system for all
sterams/devices (i.e. have a nice icon for each stream that shows up
in the per-application volume control), hotplug, "rescues" streams to
different devices on hot-unplug; combining multiple audio devices into
a single one; automatic upmixing/downmixing of surround sound; ...

The docs are all out there. I also speak at a lot of conferences. If
the Solaris guys still haven't gotten the message, then I guess it is
their fault. I am happy to respond to any questions you guys might
have. But please, you guys have to ask me, I am not going to subscribe
to any solaris mailing lists, sorry. 

> Does this positional sounds feature
> work with the current libcanberra/PulseAudio code, or are you just
> explaining an idea?

Yes, positional event sounds work right now with libcanberra and PA.

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering                        Red Hat, Inc.
lennart [at] poettering [dot] net         ICQ# 11060553
http://0pointer.net/lennart/           GnuPG 0x1A015CC4
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