kmix PulseAudio support

[Alexis Ménard]

On Wed, Jan 6, 2010 at 12:56 PM, Helio Chissini de Castro <helio at kde.org> wrote:
> On Wednesday 06 January 2010 09:40:10 Sebastian Kügler wrote:
>> On Wednesday 06 January 2010 11:24:04 Colin Guthrie wrote:
>> > After improving Phonon integration I've been digging through the kmix
>> > code to try and add proper PulseAudio support.
>> >
>> > I now have a set of patches that add this support and can commit it to
>> > trunk anytime people approve. I'm not 100% sure of trunk status due to
>> > 4.4 being ready soon.
>> >
>> > So can I commit?
>>
>> We're in feature freeze, since somewhen in November. That means no new
>>  features, no new strings for 4.4.x. Translation updates and bugfixes are
>>  OK to go into the (soon- to-be-created) 4.4 branch, anything else has to
>>  wait until trunk reopens for development again (which should also be
>>  shortly). You'll hear about it if you read this list.
>>
>> > I have two remaining issues that I do not think are show stoppers:
>> >  1. Everytime a new device shows up a new Global Shortcut dialog
>> > appears. I don't think this is any different to ALSA but.... as I now
>> > have per-app volume control, this dialog is also shown everytime a new
>> > application plays sound. It only happens once, but it could still be
>> > considered annoying by some.
>> >  2. If there are no capture streams running at startup the tab for that
>> > will never be displayed - likewise if the stream restore module in PA is
>> > not loaded the "Playback Streams" tab will never be displayed.
>> >
>> > I'll work on the latter issue for sure.
>>
>> How do we get the first one fixed, then? :)
>>
>> > Obviously if PA is not running, this whole patchset should amount to a
>> > NOOP. Also even if PA is running you can export
>> > KMIX_PULSEAUDIO_DISABLE=1 to disable the integration.
>>
>> Thanks for keeping sanity for those whose setups don't work with
>>  pulseaudio.
>>
>> > I'll write a more detailed blog post shortly (wish screenies, so you can
>> > ask about features there!). It should appear on planetkde.
>> >
>> > There are various things that could be more efficient (e.g. redraw
>> > current redraws all tabs, not just the one that has changed when a new
>> > application appears or disappears)
>> >
>> >
>> > Now, I know Helio was quite keen to squeeze this into the 4.4 release.
>> > I've just put it into Mandriva Cooker package for somewhat wider testing
>> > but it seems fine so far.
>> >
>> > My main concern with squeezing it in is that there are some i18n changes
>> > (about 5 or 6 strings).
>>
>> As explained above, it's way too late for such an intrusive change at this
>>  point as we won't get enough testing to make sure it's good enough to be
>>  shipped with a stable KDE, especially not given that there are known bugs.
>>  It'll have to wait for being released with KDE SC 4.5.
>>
>> > Anyway, that's the crux of it all.
>> >
>> > Take care
>>
>> Cheers!
>
> Ok, my input
>
> Feature is stabled ? Yes ( been testing for a while )
> Could be integrated ? Yes
> Should we do now ? Well, no, and i explain why.
>
> Colin's work is completly right, and is another backend for kmix, as we
> expected and we both discussed. But he did the top of what kmix can serve in
> his interface.
> For a end user, now is time to completly redesign because this interface not
> supports anymore any of our new tendencies bring from plasma, so we're behind
> in terms of user interaction, visual appearance and  even system interaction.
>

+1 KMix is horrible to use and way behind what's KDE 4 provides as a
user interface point of view. Unfortunately there is not that much
contributors behind right?

> So i say, lets integrate for 4.4.x with minor modifications to enable user
> decide to alsa x pulse mixer ( not using env var ), and in the sprint
> multimedia will be a ground zero point to new mixer interface and integration
> code planning, possibly keeping all current engine code separated, since this
> already works  very well. And for 4.5.
>
> []'s
>
> --
> Helio Chissini de Castro
> South America and Brazil Primary Contact
> KDE Developer since 2002
>