On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 11:03:40AM +0100, Crypto wrote: > I'm new to this list and I would like to know if there is a MIDI driver for > the xorg xserver. > > Before you think "my, that's a silly question for a starter..." let me > describe why I think that there could actually be very good reasons for that. > > 1.) MIDI interfaces connect to PCs typically via USB or joystick port. The > USB > connectivity is similar to that standard USB computer keyboards. From that > interface-based point of view they do not differ much from ordinary keyboards. > > 2.) MIDI devices transmit data at rather low speed in short commands in a > byte-wise "language" which includes not only commands (e.g. NOTE ON/OFF) but > also "stream data" for some musical events. This again is similar to > ordinary > keyboards. > > 3.) If a GUI of an application was able to understand incoming MIDI events it > could be remotely controlled via MIDI interface, aside with mouse and > keyboard. This is actually my main reason for writing this - I have found > that there are really few applications out there that have a) a GUI, b) can > be > fully MIDI controlled. In most cases it would be a question of selecting a > menu entry using MIDI commands instead of an F-key or mouse button, so it > looks like it could be done by making MIDI commands known to the shortcut > tools of applications, thus by implementing a MIDI xorg driver. > > Maybe it is mainly a question of real-time capabilities of the underlying > hardware driver it could not be done yet, but maybe there are/have been other > good reasons for not having a MIDI xorg-driver?
the balance between amount of work required and the usefulness of such drivers is a bit tilted :) you could write a driver that converts MIDI commands into key presses but that may not get past the point of a proof of concept. You'll likely run into issues regarding on-the-fly reconfiguration etc. forwarding MIDI through X to clients doesn't really work, the protocol doesn't cater for this. Cheers, Peter _______________________________________________ xorg mailing list [email protected] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/xorg
