[Swfdec] Resurrect OSS support for non-ALSA operating systems

[Chris Wareham]

Benjamin Otte said on 17/10/08 22:37:
> On Fri, Oct 17, 2008 at 11:18 PM, Chris Wareham
> <chriswareham at chriswareham.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>> I may be wrong, but I recall the main argument for inclusion of ALSA in
>> Linux was that the version of OSS it replaced couldn't multiplex audio,
>> or could only do so on one particular cards hardware mixer.
>>
> Considering that ALSA's kernel drivers still don't do software mixing
> and that mixing functionality was only introduced when dmix came
> around, I'd say you may indeed be wrong.
> 

As I recall it, when 4Front took OSS closed source, the options were to
maintain the version in Linux and potentially play catch up with
4Front's API or forget compatibility. Then ALSA was proposed, with goals
that included software mixing and a higher level API - I hadn't realised
that the former had not been fully realised yet.

> The reasons for ALSA inclusion that I remember were a saner design,
> lower latency, more active maintainers and more drivers.
> Unfortunately that's only the kernel bits, not libalsa. But today
> we're left with that libalsa, which is a library with multiple
> backends (Pulse, Linux ALSA drivers, Jack and there might even be an
> experimental OSS backend). And I don't see why the BSD people can't
> make that lib work. I still have the feeling that they are
> disgrundtled by the L standing for Linux in there.
> 

Do you mean that there's an experimental shim between libalsa and OSS?
If so then that would be great, and accomplishes what I was hoping to do
in part with my raw MIDI wrapper. As for whether "the BSD people" are
disgruntled, in NetBSD land at least the lack of ALSA support seems to
be more to do with a lack of interest, while the "L" word was definitely
no impediment when a Video4Linux compatible API was added to NetBSD this
Summer.

> Cheers,
> Benjamin
> 

Anyway, I guess all this is getting a little off topic, so I'll get back
to compiling PulseAudio!

Regards,

Chris