Lee Revell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > On Wed, 2006-03-01 at 23:07 +0100, David Kastrup wrote: >> Lee Revell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >> >> > On Wed, 2006-03-01 at 22:32 +0100, David Kastrup wrote: >> >> What happens now if I do >> >> aplay -D spdif something.wav >> >> ? Most certainly not the soundcard with the S/PDIF output gets used. >> >> Instead some nonsense happens. >> > >> > That can't ever work because we don't have enough information about >> > all the supported devices to definitively say device $FOO has SPDIF >> > and device $BAR doesn't. Lots of devices look like they have SPDIF >> > to the driver but it's not wired up to anything. Etc. >> > >> > Solving this problem in the way you suggest would require the ALSA >> > developers having all the details about the hardware that the people >> > who write the Windows drivers do. This is not going to happen >> > anytime soon. >> >> I am not asking for a solution. I am asking for a clue. The man page >> to aplay does not mention what a PCM actually is. It just tells you >> to list them with -L. It does not mention that you can just tack a :1 >> after it to specify a different sound card. It does not bother to >> mention that the PCM list from -L is basically static and not >> depending on the actual available sound card capabilities, applies in >> this form only and exclusively to the default sound card, and can be >> used for other sound cards by tacking on little cute suffixes like :1. >> >> This sort of stuff is simply undocumented anywhere close to where it >> would be used. I have not been able to find it, and I asked man >> pages, general ALSA documentation, HOWTOs and Google. >> > > If someone wants to set up an "ALSA mini HOWTO wiki" I'll start the > content, by adding the info from this thread. But it can't stay a Wiki > because those fill up with misinformation or extraneous information > eventually - when it's done we'll publish it as a static HOWTO.
It belongs in the example sections of the man pages, at the very least. Using some PCM of a secondary sound card is important enough to be used as an example for _all_ ALSA-related commands. If it is not there in every man page, at least a clear reference to some man page where it is is required. HOWTOs are supposed to be hands-on extracts of the full documentation. They are not supposed to replace documentation, but give recipes and outlines that make it easier to work with the normal documentation. -- David Kastrup, Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum
