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  • #71
    Originally posted by energyman View Post
    and you seem not to know what you are talking about.

    fp and performance have nothing to do with each other. OSS does not use FP for performance but for perceived 'better' audio quality.
    Well, every sound application that tries to offer good mixing audio quality, does use FP. Maybe not in-kernel, but it does it. There's really no way around it.

    Also, don't forget that in-kernel FP is only "banned" on Linux. CoreAudio (OS X) does FP in the kernel, for example.

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    • #72
      Originally posted by Ant P. View Post
      And it also renders OSS4 irrelevant on any portable music player without floating point hardware.
      It can be disabled at build time (there's a config option that undefines CONFIG_OSS_VMIX_FLOAT).

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      • #73
        Originally posted by RealNC View Post
        Like what?
        Like links to bug reports / mailing-list discussions / anything?
        Originally posted by RealNC View Post
        Now that is hard to believe too, since when ALSA first started, it wasn't working well for almost everyone.
        Irrelevent. This is 2009, when it does...
        Originally posted by RealNC View Post
        But OK, if you weren't around back then... :P
        Haha, personal attacks because I'm trying to help you solve your problem logically? :P

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        • #74
          Originally posted by krazy View Post
          Like links to bug reports / mailing-list discussions / anything?


          Irrelevent. This is 2009, when it does...
          You said "ever". Not "now". "Ever" includes dates previous to "now."

          Haha, personal attacks because I'm trying to help you solve your problem logically? :P
          I'm sorry.

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          • #75
            Vested Interests ?

            I'm a sound developer, and have been for longer than I care to remember. My take on this ALSA vs OSS4 bunfight is pretty simple.

            ALSA is not a panacea, but it is just about usable if all you are interested in is playback. When it comes to capture, there are plenty of annoyances and outright feature deficits that have led to many people looking at alternatives. And don't get me started on dmix & dsnoop ...

            OSS4 has many perceived difficulties, but it looks to me like they have addressed a lot of concerns people have, principally that of licensing. And the rate of improvements is good.

            I switched from OSS to ALSA several years ago, because of promises that everything would be rosy in the linux sound world. Well it isn't, and the ALSA devs make plenty of releases, but fail to address the key issues that crop up time and time again. And don't be thinking I haven't raised these matters on the alsa-dev mailing list, cos I have, to no avail. And so have many other people.

            It is hard to draw any other conclusion than that ALSA is broken by design, and that the principal developers are deliberately dragging their heels. It is no secret who they work for, and that is why I am highly suspicious of any and all pronouncements they make.

            4Front are also a commercial entity (don't forget you need to eat and pay the bills while developing), but I hardly think they are in the same league as the ALSA "sponsors". And they are *much* more responsive to bug reports and feature requests.

            Consequently, I am now going to be offering OSS support again, simply for the functionality, that was promised, but never delivered by ALSA. This is a fair bit of work, to offer both options, but functionality demands it. I am *fed up* with this whole mess. Many people told me I was being stupid by dropping OSS, and they were right. I was a muppet for believing the hype.

            On the issue of floating point in the kernel, I really don't think this is a substantial issue, but there may be reasons to switch the FP to fixed-point long long, to accommodate "safe" context switches. This is something that can be addressed, if necessary. It is not like this cannot be fixed.

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            • #76
              I don't have any issue with alsa as well RealNC and I use Gentoo too.
              Also, I have an old sound card, SB Live 5.1 and it works like a charm.

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              • #77
                Reading this thread sure got me shaking my head. It comes down to one thing: personal choice. Each person should be able to use what works for them. Alsa and OSS4 have their pluses and minuses and these soundsystems should be selected for the particular needs.

                All this childish arguing does not really help, and just generates so much hot air. If there's a feature that Alsa should use, then why not suggest it?

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                • #78
                  Okay, apart from that one :P

                  Actually, after some more research, I have to admit that alsa seems to leave a lot to be desired. Especially this stuff:

                  ..ouch.

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