LWN.net Logo

Gotta say "I told ya so!"

Gotta say "I told ya so!"

Posted Sep 19, 2008 5:16 UTC (Fri) by bronson (subscriber, #4806)
In reply to: Gotta say "I told ya so!" by jmspeex
Parent article: LPC: Linux audio: it's a mess

What will libsydney provide that PortAudio doesn't?

Trying to find an answer, at the bottom of the libsydney link above triton asks, "As for the lib, wouldn't it be easier to fix PortAudio? Why reinvent yet another audio lib? NIH syndrome?"

Overall I'm really happy with Pulse but I'm very skeptical about libsydney... Does this world need yet another audio API for developers to choose from?


(Log in to post comments)

Gotta say "I told ya so!"

Posted Sep 20, 2008 0:14 UTC (Sat) by jmspeex (subscriber, #51639) [Link]

I remember there were a couple of issues, but I don't remember the details. I think low-latency support was one of these issues. libsydney is designed to be usable both by media players and by applications that require a very low delay (few ms).

Gotta say "I told ya so!"

Posted Sep 20, 2008 20:42 UTC (Sat) by salimma (subscriber, #34460) [Link]

Hope they come up with a good name for it too. libsydney and libcanberra are both very.. obsfuscating.

way [OT], but...

Posted Sep 25, 2008 2:46 UTC (Thu) by roelofs (guest, #2599) [Link]

jmspeex

Obscure Babylon 5 reference?

Greg

Gotta say "I told ya so!"

Posted Sep 21, 2008 23:20 UTC (Sun) by mezcalero (subscriber, #45103) [Link]

The buffering model in PortAudio is too simple, too hardware-bound. A modern audio API should be a deparature of hw-specific fragment-based buffer metrics. Instead, we need to allow applications to set values that are actually understandable (such as "latency" and stuff) and default to a model that defaults large playback buffers with the option to rewrite them on request. Why? This will save us power (in conjunction with 'glitch-free' PA that is) and will greatly enhance network-transparent audio playback.

That is one of the more fundamental issues I don't think that PortAudio is the way to go. There are more. And it's a feeling shared by a couple of other audio related people.

Fixing the fact that we have to many competing audio APIs on Linux by adding another one is of course paradox. But still, after discussing this forth and back I believe this is the right way.

Lennart

Copyright © 2013, Eklektix, Inc.
Comments and public postings are copyrighted by their creators.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds