[pulseaudio-discuss] new "reserve device" feature?

[pl bossart]

Lennart,
I was looking at the latest code and in git-master I saw changes to
the alsa-sink/source files, and a new 'reserve' module. Can you please
shed some light on why PA would try to lock a device, or resume a sink
when an ALSA device becomes 'unused'. My understanding was that apps
using ALSA would see PCM samples redirected to PulseAudio thanks to
the pulse plugin, and PA would be the only app using hw:0.  What uses
do you have in mind?
Thanks
Pierre