Re: [OT] ALSA userspace API complexity

Olivier Galibert
2006-01-08T13:21:22Z

On Sun, Jan 08, 2006 at 03:26:18AM +0100, Martin Drab wrote:
> On Sun, 8 Jan 2006, Olivier Galibert wrote:
>
> > > And if the application doesn't support, who and where converts it?
> > > With OSS API, it's a job of the kernel.
> >
> > Once again no. Nothing prevents the kernel to forward the data to
> > userland daemons depending on a userspace-uploaded configuration.
>
> I think that the point was, that switching from userspace to kernelspace
> then to userspace again and back to kernelspace in order to do something,
> that could have been done directly in the userspace, and though could save
> those two unnecessary switches, is an unnecessary overhead, which may not
> necessarily be that insignificant if it's done so often (which for
> streaming audio is the case).

You all seem to forget that dmix is in userspace in a different task
too.

> Why doing things complicated when there is no evident gain from it,
> or is there?

No evident gain? Wow. What about:
- stopping crippling the OSS api

- having a real kernel api for which you can make different libraries
depending on the need of the users

- stop making a fundamentally unsecure shared library mandatory

- opening the possibility of writing plugins to people without a PhD
in lattice QCD.

and that's just a start.

OG.