Re: Mixer control elements.

[Takashi Iwai <tiwai@suse.de>]

At Fri, 11 Oct 2002 12:45:11 +1000,
James Courtier-Dutton wrote:
> 
> Hello
> I was wondering how easy it would be to add a classification to each 
> control element. (switches, volume, capture on/off etc.)
> The classification would be as follows: -
> 1) Used during capture. I.E. Switches and volume controls for anything 
> one can record.
> 2) Used during playback. I.E. Switches and volume controls for anything 
> one can play.
> 3) General control. I.E. Hardware config. E.g. The SB Live 
> Digital/Analogue switch for Digital SPDIF out/Analogue Center and LFE 
> audio out.

i think the easiest way is to check the control name whether it
contains "Playback" or "Capture" substring.

> Then have alsamixer be able to filter the display using these 3 categories.
> User presses a key, and alsamixer displays only the controls used to 
> effect sound playback.
> User presses another key, and alsamixer displays only the controls used 
> to effect sound recording.
> User presses another key, and alsamixer displays only the controls used 
> to do other stuff.
> 
> This sort of functionallity could help users understand what each 
> control does better.
> In my view the SB Live has so many controls, it is very difficult to 
> sort out which ones to use.
> 
> Currently, alsamixer seems to link playback and record volumes, that 
> should be separate.

agreed.  we need a better grouping method, anyhow.


i believe that the mixer is one of the biggest TODOs in ALSA.
since the mixer topology is really dependent upon the card, it's not
easy for a mixer application to build up the proper look and feel only
from the control API.
for example, "send volume" or "routing" of emu10k1 should not appear
on the normal mixer.

my idea is to provide an external database for each card, so that the
mixer app parses it for its GUI.  perhaps a script language is
suitable for such a purpose.


Takashi


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