Messages in this thread | | | Date | Sun, 28 Feb 1999 10:46:09 +0200 (EET) | From | Tuomas Heino <> | Subject | Re: Multiple applications using sound drivers? |
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On Sun, 28 Feb 1999, Nathan Hand wrote:
> On Sat, 27 Feb 1999, Joe Votour wrote: > > > Having used UNIX for a few years here in university, I am fully aware of > > devices being locked while they are in use. My distributed networks class has > > taught me the importance of that (we tend to do a lot of programming > > assignments dealing with file locking and IPC messaging). > > > > However, there is a feature that I wish Linux had that Windows (shudder) offers > > - multiple programs accessing the sound card at once. > > Windows does not have this feature. The Windows sound driver can be > held by a single process, just like the Linux sound driver. > > The difference is for Windows you write to the MCI API (or whatever > it's called this week) and it transparently mixes other streams for > you, before delivering it to the sound driver. > > On Linux we have something similar. It's called the ESD, and if the > sound application community stopped using /dev/dsp directly, and in > the interests of users started using ESD, we'd all win. > > ESD even includes a wrapper script that fakes /dev/dsp for all your > old legacy applications. You can get the functionality you want now > with no major effort on your part. > > ESD has other potential benefits, including removing bloat like the > softoss wavetable driver and putting it in user space where it more > rightly belongs. ESD can also transfer sound streams over the net. > > Despite this gushing about ESD, it does have flaws, but Linux would > be better off fixing ESD and using it rather than changing the UNIX > open() semantics just to make badly behaved sound apps work. > > Take note that the exact same problem exists for a number of rather > important subsystems, including libggi vs X, and gpm vs X, and sane > vs sg. Some userland peace treaties would solve a lot of problems.
Now... after all these shameless plugs about ESD one question remains: Where to get more info about it? ;) ... and while you're at it how does it interface with ALSA etc? ;)
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