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List:       kde-core-devel
Subject:    Re: Disabling aRts in knotify
From:       Scott Wheeler <wheeler () kde ! org>
Date:       2004-02-18 17:37:28
Message-ID: 200402181837.51280.wheeler () kde ! org
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Responding to two things in one here...

On Wednesday 18 February 2004 0:54, Gioele Barabucci wrote:
> > I for one would be more than satisfied with plain /dev/dsp support, since 
> > my soundcard features two channels.

That's a step backwards for multimedia on the UNIX desktop.  On the one hand 
I'm all about things that work and being pragmatic, but having the desktop 
deal with the raw devices is not the way to go.

For comparison something like GStreamer doesn't provide a sound server or 
network transparency -- it just has output plugins for i.e. ALSA, OSS, ESS, 
aRts, Jack, etc.  It's more of a media [en/de]coding framework that handles 
manipulation of the media as well.

> Is not aRts the way KDE supports different sound backends?

No, aRts is a backend of sorts.  Actually it's more of a backend than most 
modern approaches because it's a sound server and a codec abstraction layer 
and a transport layer rolled into one.  (Not to mention synthesis or other 
not-often used bits.)

> IMO, what we really need is a new frontend for soundcards. Someone
> talked of gstreamer. Has it been finally selected as KDE4 sound system?

We haven't even decided roughly when KDE 4 will be released, much less made a 
decision on such a large component.

Once we know a time frame for the KDE 4 release we can have a look at what 
options there are that we think might realistically be available in that time 
frame.  GStreamer is of course one of those.

> Future GNOME releases will be based on it, so (if kdemultimedia experts 
> feels is a good product) supporting it would be a big step towards desktop 
> integration.

This would be a pretty bad reason to make such a big decision.  While it would 
be convenient and a nice side effect, in the case that GStreamer is chosen it 
will be because it's the best tool for the job at hand; not because 
"everyone's doing it".

But again, at some point -- I expect once we come up with some kind of roadmap 
for 3.3 and 4.0 the multimedia developers will try to sort this out.  It's 
also worth noting that there is no silver bullet; just replacing aRts doesn't 
mean that everything suddenly works the way we always hoped it could have...

- -Scott

- -- 
If you want to get laid, go to college, but if you want an education, go to 
the library.
- --Frank Zappa
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