RFC: KDE4, KMix and a public Mixer API (possibly freedesktop.org)

[Thiago Macieira]

Christian Esken wrote:
>I am currently working on a Mixer Service API for KDE4.
>The API is targeted at mixer services (like kmixd), a Mixer (like kmix)
> and several MM apps. It can be used for changing volumes, retrieving
> volume changes, querying for mixers, detecting hot-plugged
> soundcards/mixers and some more services.

Detecting mixers would be nice, but I fail to see why we need this API as 
a D-Bus service, rather than something ALSA provides. I am probably 
missing something, as I am not familiar with multimedia architectures.

Is it by any chance because we can have software mixers?

>The API is noted in DBUS style (fully conversion of the signals open
> yet)

What do you mean by this parenthesis?

> , and meant as a RFC. It will be changed and extended as comments 
> flow in (for example I would like to add keyboard shortcut management,
> as currently 3-n applications fight e.g. for the XF86AudioRaiseVolume
> shortcut).
>
>Comments are always welcome,
>  Christian
>
>PS: People normally expect to see a lot of UDI stuff in the API But the
> UDI is used as little as possible. This is because it is "unstable" in
> the sense that it might change when unplugging and hotplugging again.
> For the same reason the UDI cannot be used in finding an appropriate
> configuration for a device, and so on. So the mixer server hides the
> UDI, and is responsible for creating a more "stable" ID. Today I am
> using the card name + instance number (e.g. "Sound_Fusion_CS46xx:0").

I just question the wisdom of adding "other" to the API. If you need to 
extend it, then you can add new methods. Or a new interface.

-- 
  Thiago Macieira  -  thiago (AT) macieira.info - thiago (AT) kde.org
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