Re: patch to esound to use ARts (KDE sound subsystem) if it's running

[Elliot Lee <sopwith redhat com>]

On 19 May 2002, Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller wrote:

> Personally I think it sounds like a situation that has to give people
> even more 'stuttering' when playing back sound through sound servers
> (which I why I use none :), but if that isn't the case I think putting
> it in is probably a good idea. Frederic Crozat, the maintainer, is on
> vacation till the end of the month, but I think Elliot Lee have full
> commit permits so I am adding him to the to list.

This is an aweful idea with an aweful implementation.

The idea is aweful because of possibility for the two layers thing.

The implementation is aweful because it patches every single sound driver.
Instead of patching every single sound driver in esound, which isn't
acceptable, the implementation could just be an audio_arts sound driver
(which has drawbacks, but none worse than hacking every single sound
driver).

arts and esound both suck, let's not make it worse. :)

Possible solutions:
. The solution suggested in the arts FAQ ('artsdsp esd') will provide the 
same level of functionality as the patch, but without any patching. I 
would take a patch to control exactly how esdlib auto-spawns esd, so that 
running esd via artsdsp is automatic.
. Getting esd to talk the arts protocol (not terribly likely) or artsd to 
talk the esound protocol (maybe more possible than with esd, since I am 
guessing the artsd source code is a little more modular than that of esd)
. Using a sound card that has hardware mixing, and running both daemons.
. Writing a sound server that doesn't suck (something that I have 
threatened to do for umpteen years, but never followed through on so far 
:)

All of these solutions seem saner than the proposed patch.

G'luck,
-- Elliot