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Date: Thu, 4 Feb 1999 15:07:55 -0800 (PST)
From: R Pickett <emerson@hayseed.net>
To: Jaroslav Kysela <perex@jcu.cz>
cc: alsa-devel@alsa.jcu.cz
Subject: Re: Writing Article Re: Linux audio;  also have new hardware support
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On Thu, 4 Feb 1999, Jaroslav Kysela wrote:

> I don't expect very much improvement. We can currently with good hardware
> (PCI soundcards) reach 1.5ms latency.

Excellent.  Can I quote you on that?  I did see the later mail alleging that
2.2.1 has some new issues around this, but I'm presuming those will be found
and fixed by April, when the article runs.

> > But, conglomerating a large MIDI interface into one device with a huge mess of
> > channels is a Very Bad Idea, IMHO.  Consider the Opcode Studio V, which has 16
> > ins and outs, AND can be daisy chained several deep, for _thousands_ of MIDI
> > channels.
> 
> I wrote this example for demonstration how is flexible sequencer API.
> Other things depend on sequencer drivers and user space software, of
> course.

Ah, OK.  I misunderstood.  Yes, that makse sense, then.

> > So, interested developers who want to throw time at new hardware drivers don't
> > have proper docs yet.  Hmmn.  I'm going to be trying to pull developers into
> > writing ALSA drivers for all these companies I have the attention of, but not
> > being the best coder myself, I'd either need (a) hand-holding docs and example
> > code, or (b) experienced ALSA coders with time on their hands.
> 
> My problem with documentation is that responses from my volunteers
> for documentation are rare. They seem to be busy. It was main reason
> why 0.2.0 final of ALSA driver isn't out (and it won't be probably ever
> released).
> 
> I'll try do something for kernel side documentation, but you don't expect
> immediate results. The most irritating thing for me is that kernel side
> ALSA API is changed day to day and things may be pretty obsolete one month
> after some docs are out :-((
> 
> I can only recommend to developers reading of sources. I'm using this way
> over four years and I think that this way is only way to keep things
> always recent.

But at some point, May is when you're thinking currently, all of this will
settle down, and documentation could be lashed together for writing a hardware
driver without too much fear of change?

> I had some positive responses from Alan Cox which is currently maintain
> OSS/Lite drivers. That's all what I can say to this question. I'll fight
> for kernel inclusion of ALSA driver, of course.

OK.  Gottit.

> It's nice to hear that some companies are ready for this.
> I cannot offer my hands until May 1999, but I moved this discussion to
> alsa-devel mailing list where are other ALSA developers. I'm also asking:
> 
> Anybody have got interrest work with profi hardware and write ALSA driver?
> Linux kernel coding knowledge is required.

Please also get hold of me directly for contact information.  If someone is
interested in looking at the one company that is ready _today_ for an ALSA
contact, they're at <http://www.lynxstudio.com> -- get hold of me for the
contact's email address if you're interested in taking on this project.

> It would be fine if you can write some small HTML document and I can put
> your offer to ALSA's WWW site. Or I can give you access to some directory
> on ALSA's WWW server for your pages if you want (better updating).

I'm going to be putting up a site on my server with more information about
this stuff, including user-level software and other things that probably
wouldn't be on-topic at the ALSA site itself.  But once that's done, linking
between the two would be very nice.

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------
R Pickett                Look around you. This is what the world
emerson@hayseed.net      looks like at the end of the millenium.
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