Re: Soundcard over Network
Jim Gettys (jg@pa.dec.com)
Mon, 3 May 1999 08:20:45 -0700
> From: jg@pa.dec.com (Jim Gettys)
> Date: Mon, 3 May 1999 08:18:49 -0700
> To: dmartin@clifton-labs.com (Dale E. Martin)
> Cc: Raphael Becker <beckerra@rumms.uni-mannheim.de>,
> Linux-Kernel Mailinglist <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
> Subject: Re: Soundcard over Network
> -----
> AudioFile was renamed AF due to trademark problems. And gnome now
> has an audiofile library, so lets use AF's normal name.
>
> In any case, AF should be easy to port to Linux. It can use a /dev/audio
> interface, though this is not ideal.
>
> In my (informed) opinion, both NAS and AF have problems that need to
> be worked on (though they are good starts).
>
> I'd personally start with AF, but then again, I'm biased (as one of AF's
> authors). The fundamental features of AF that are very good are:
>
> 1) very low latency is possible; if an output device hasn't played
> the sample yet, you can still change it. This is vital for both
> gaming and teleconferencing; it is hard to retrofit into NAS,
> which is why I'd start with AF.
> 2) explict control over time (you can mix samples at a sample
> resolution).
>
> The not so good parts of AF are:
> 1) no way to store sound snippets at the server (pretty trivial to
> add)
> 2) single mix buffer, which complicates unplaying sounds and makes
> applications that may need to do so more complicated (this is an
> artifact of the era in which AF was written, where memory was
> much more expensive. This would be a moderate amout of work to
> redo the server for; my guess is, if I had a month free, which I
> don't,
> I could redo the server to present multiple output rings.
> 3) basic telephony support.
>
> In any case, if people want to pick up AF and run with it, I'd be happy
> to provide some pointers.
> - Jim Gettys
>
>
>
Oops, I goofed: I meant to say: AF has basic telephony support;
it got listed under not-so good parts, when I meant to list it as a feature
of AF.
Sorry,
- Jim
-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/