Re: sound and gnome ?

[Caolan McNamara <Caolan McNamara ul ie>]

On 30-Jan-98 jchrr@post.uni-bielefeld.de wrote:
>Hi !
>
>> has the gnome project finalized a sound api ?, if not id like to suggest
>that 
>> whatever support is included be capable of being used over a network,
>perhaps
>> using nas or rplay, so often its forgotten when sound is used in an x app
>that
>> while X has network support "open /dev/audio" has not.
>
>My idea is this:
>
>Raster is writing an API, to let applications talk through the X-Protocoll.
>This will work with every network-connection X is running on, and
>it will automatically solve authorization stuff.
>
>I'd write a small application, that handles this:
>- Play wave-files (or a pipe) for digital audio 
>- Has some event -> sound-effect mapping support
>- Play MIDI events for music
>
>This application could even virtualize the mixer, sequencer and dsp ports of
>a system, to provide access for more than one application to these devices.
>
>This does not cover recording of audio or MIDI. That is more critical
>(in timing and security), so I will not touch that. And I will not send
>digital audio directly over the network.
when you say you wont send audio directly over the net does that mean that
if i were to write an audio generation package and run it on machine x
onto display y, that i couldnt actually play audio (within the gnome 
framework anyway) but only some preselected effects that are stored in
this gnome support program running on the machine that hosts my display ?
or were you just referring to not allowing recorded data going the other way,
or to piggybacking the audio over X protocol.

nas (network audio system) currently virtualizes mixer. dsp and i believe
midi, can do recording etc etc over a network and allows multiple writers. 
what it does lack though is proper authentication, the current server has 
just 2 modes, localhost or everyone, but to add to the audio server proper 
support for current X security would be less of a task than recreating most 
of its functionality.


C.

p.s
a working copy of nas for linux is at 
http://www.csn.ul.ie/~caolan/publink/nas/
the versions patch5 floating around on sunsite etc are broken when it comes
to handling properly multiple accesses under linux. skynet may not be accessable
for a day or so, patch 4 works i think, or i can mail a copy to anyone who wants

Real Life: Caolan McNamara           *  Doing: MSc in HCI
Work: Caolan.McNamara@ul.ie          *  Phone: +353-61-202699
URL: http://skynet.csn.ul.ie/~caolan *  Sig: an oblique strategy
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