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Re: OT: OSS vs ALSA

Date1999-08-19 16:12
FromDave Phillips
SubjectRe: OT: OSS vs ALSA
Kevin Conder wrote:

> ...even the commercial OSS guys admit the ALSA API has better
> MIDI support.

No offense, Kevin, but I doubt that. ALSA at present supports only
/dev/midi, the raw MIDI interface. /dev/sequencer and /dev/sequencer2
are not supported. IMO, ALSA MIDI support is relatively weak, though
that will change as Frank van de Pol's excellent API is incorporated.
Unforunately, that seems to be taking forever; fortunately, /dev/midi is
enough for Csound.

== Dave Phillips

       http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/index.html

Date1999-08-19 19:48
FromKevin Conder
SubjectRe: OT: OSS vs ALSA
On Thu, 19 Aug 1999, Dave Phillips wrote:

> Kevin Conder wrote:
> 
> > ...even the commercial OSS guys admit the ALSA API has better
> > MIDI support.
> 
> No offense, Kevin, but I doubt that. ALSA at present supports only
> /dev/midi, the raw MIDI interface. /dev/sequencer and /dev/sequencer2
> are not supported. IMO, ALSA MIDI support is relatively weak, though
> that will change as Frank van de Pol's excellent API is incorporated.
> Unforunately, that seems to be taking forever; fortunately, /dev/midi is
> enough for Csound.

	Wow!  The same Dave Phillips that maintains the Linux Sound Apps
page.  I'd like to say thank you for maintaining that page.  It's one of
my favorite bookmarks.

	The interview that I was referring to is at:
	http://www2.crosswinds.net/~linuxmusic/software3.html

	Here is a relevant quote from this interview:
"We will be enhancing our MIDI architecture in OSS v4.0 in 2000/2001. So
I will give ALSA due credit for coming up with a better MIDI 
architecture."

	I'll take your word about the /dev/sequencer issues. So maybe
our misunderstanding is over the differences between the words "support"
and "architecture".  Life's too short to argue about semantics, right?

	Keep up the good work with the Linux Sound Apps page.

===================================================================
Kevin Conder, email: kconder@interaccess.com
Web site: http://homepage.interaccess.com/~kconder