Sound System Control Center Module (was Re: Konqueror security settings)

[Arnold Krille]

On Tuesday 01 July 2003 02:11, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> On Monday 30 June 2003 05:34, Henrique Pinto wrote:
> > Enable network transparency:
> > 	Do people visit the kcm routinely to modify this? I've asked some
> > people, and they don't even know what "network transparency" is.
> > Definately a candidate for being moved...
> IIRC the reason this was added was because people who DO use KDE remotely
> couldn't figure out how to do it manually. so it was merged into the UI. i
> used to get questions about this on IRC fairly regularly before its
> inclusion. i'd say it needs to stay somewhere easy to find, whether or not
> that means on the front tab.....
> better wording would be welcome, though. "Enable remote network access" or
> some such.

I don't  think "Enable remote.." is better, since network-transparency means 
not only access from remote but access to remote too...

It should be moved to some "advanced" settings since its not working without 
some fiddling with aRts...

> > Exchange security and reference info over the X11 server:
> > 	If people don't know what "network transparency" is, shoud we expect
> > then to understand this?
> i think this is a great "enable it by default, move it somewhere else"
> option since the two times you use it (when using network transparency or
> XWindow) coer probably 99% of usage
>
> > Run soundserver with realtime priority:
> > 	I know what "realtime priority" means. You know what "realtime priority"
> > means. But do people who only use the computer for reading mail and
> > browsing the net know that? This is another option that falls under the
> > category of "Advanced Settings".
> nope, they probably don't... another candidate for better wording...

I think this is a primary setting, altough a little explanation text 
("Activate this if you hear clicks while listening to you music. But consider 
to adjust the Audio Buffer Size, too") would be good.

> > Autosuspend if idle for... :
> > 	Couldn't this be guessed? Is there really need for such a thing?
> i don't know...the maintainer(s) / people on kdemultimedia may be able to
> shed some light on this ...

This can not be guessed. (only to no autosuspend since aRts doesn't want other 
apps blocking its beloved /dev/dsp ;-) )
It depends strongly on the preferences the user has, how much he switches 
between different audio apps using different io-methods.
I am using 5 seconds time for example which is imho enough for stopping noatun 
and starting mplayer (using oss). But on slower pc's one might do not want to 
let aRts give away /dev/dsp if only idle for some seconds...

> > Display messages using... :
> > 	The same as above.
> > Message display:
> > 	This looks like a "debug"-like option. I don't thing there is need for
> > such a thing. (Yes, I know users should be warned on error, but would
> > anyone, besides developers, want debug messages?)
> yes, this really doesn't belong here IMHO.

This is really "Advanced Settings"!!!

> why don't we look at the other tabs first?
>
> > I think that adding simple system volume and balance
> > settings may be a good idea (this is based on my mother's answer to the
> > question "Where would you look if you want to configure volume?". I know
> > about the existence of KMix.).
> or at least provide a link/button that opens kmix... i'm not sure how
> easy/feasable it would be to offer static volume/balance controls on this
> page... depends on how much variety there are between control of the
> different mixers..
> perhaps embedding the kmix applet would be an interesting concept?

Please keep in mind that aRts(-settings) and KMix are different things. The 
first controls artsd, the later just controls the hardware through oss/alsa.
Most normal users mix this, we should make the configure-dialogs in a way the 
users do notice the separation.

My proposal: One tab for all aRts-settings (including a button "Advanced 
Settings" which shows a dialog) and other tabs for Mixer, MIDI and other 
things...
But if the hierarchy stays "Sound & Multimedia"/"Sound System" you could 
include all the other sound-related settings ("System Bell","System 
Notification",...) as tabs as well, so perhaps there should be different 
modules for "aRts", "Mixer", "MIDI" and so on...

Arnold

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