New way to change volume

[Michaël Arnauts <michael arnauts gmail com>]

Hi all,

This morning, I woke up, and had a great idea... Now, the volume
control is used in a way the hardware works, you modify a PCM channel,
to modify the output of all system sounds (movies, music, other
things). I think it would be much userfriendlyer if it would work in
the way the user works. I will give an example:

A user is watching a movie in totem, and rhythmbox is running in the
background. Now, there isn't a difference in the volume control, it
would be nice if it could contain "Totem" and "Rhythmbox" as channels.
And if you turn the volume of the "Totem"-channel down, the volume
control in totem will turn down. That way, all the volumes can be
controlled from inside the volume control, instead of only the PCM what
is a total of all sounds. The volume of rhythmbox would be the same, as
it is a different channel.

Ofcourse, there has to be some "Hardware channels" also, for the MIC
and LINE-IN. I'm not sure about CD, because that could be done by
adjusting the volume of the "Sound Juicer" or your favourite
audioplayer"-channel.

I suck at mockups, but I guess the explenation is pretty clear... Just
split the PCM into different application-based channels, and name the
other channels "Hardware channels".

If you comment, please add me to the CC list, since i'm not subscribed
to desktop-devel-list. If desktop-devel-list isn't the best way to put
this, please tell me where i should put this instead.

Thanks,

Michaël Arnauts