Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:31:04 +0000 | From | Pavel Machek <> | Subject | OSS vs ALSA API (was Re: Is it time for remove (crap) ALSA from kernel tree ?) |
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Hi!
> >Today both OSS and ALSA teams have to spend significant > >amounts of time in emulating the "alien" APIs. Making > >OSS and ALSA to co-exist will require some work in both > >sides but that should be nothing when compared to the > >effort required for emulation. > ... > In Linux we typically do not do two APIs and codebases > for the same purpose. If we do, like sys_mmap and > sys_mmap2, it's an older legacy interface that never > changes, that we are moving people AWAY from, and a > newer interface. > > I see no reason to change from the path at which > upstream has arrived: OSS is a legacy API that's frozen > in time, and ALSA provides the new stuff.
While I agree that ALSA is better than OSS... I don't actually think ALSA kernel<>user api is... at least for my purposes. I'm still using OSS emulation, because I could not get alsa proper to work... and the advanced stuff just does not work in emulation.
In OSS days, if you wanted to test kernel sound driver, you did:
mknod /dev/dsp cat /bin/bash > /dev/dsp.
With alsa+oss emulation, you need
mknod /dev/mixer install aumix aumix mknod /dev/dsp cat /bin/bash > /dev/dsp.
With alsa proper, it is
install alsalib create about 5 device nodes install alsautils maybe do some config? aplay some.wav
..provided you have .wav near you. I'm not sure if it is possible to produce sounds using normal shell scripting? (w/o alsautils)?
I can even test kernel graphics drivers by cat /bin/bash > /dev/fb0... it would be nice to have equivalent for audio... OSS API seems to be the equivalent these days, but please don't deprecate it.
Pavel -- (english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek (cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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