[Klug-general] audio systems/servers/apis.

[James Morris]

On 22 April 2011 21:31, Peter Childs <pchilds at bcs.org> wrote:

> hmm, If you have ever dared to look at doing anything with sound from
> a development point of view forget it.
>
> The are about 7 (probably more) linux sound api all of which have
> different ways of talking to each other, emulating each other, taking
> to the hardware, all have advantages and disadvantages depending on
> what you are trying to do and what your app talks.....
>
> Maybe we should give a prize to anyone who can write a sound app that
> uses a different api depending on the day of the week and a spare on
> bank holidays...

you could say the same about anything. markup languages for example.
nevermind that they each serve distinct purposes. let's just lump them
all together without understanding what they do and then spread FUD
about the fact they don't all interoperate and how it would be so much
better if....

i seem to recall that apache isn't the only server you can run on
linux. and omg, how many desktop environments/window managers/toolkits
are there?

>
> Hmm where did I leave that list....

> nas

network audio system for audio with network transparency. last release 2009.

> alsa

kernel hardware drivers/modules. you want these.

> oss
open sound system: deprecated in kernel in favour of alsa. generally
considered obsolete unless you're one of the few who wants to pay for
the commercial product.

> jack
for pro audio users/studios (not general desktop use) in a low latency
environment providing/specializing in inter-application audio routing
with synchronous clients. very active development. recent work
bringing session management. "JACK also has support for distributing
audio processing across a network, both fast & reliable LANs as well
as slower, less reliable WANs."

> gstreamer
"a library for constructing graphs of media-handling components" -
more for general desktop use i guess - i've never used it.

> esd
the predecessor of pulse. should be obsolete but seems to hang around
like a bad smell.

> arts
generally considered obsolete. predecessor to phonon i believe.

> pulse
for general desktop use with gnome.

you forgot phonon - kde's pulse.

james.