[openbeos-midi] Re: activity/status?

[...]
> I cannot find any evidence that we would find a major benefit by looking
> at ALSA, as(AFAIAA)it is a library for a low latency Linux sound card
> implementation, and it is LGPL.

ALSA has MIDI drivers so I thought that would benefit. But no, ALSA
is not LGPL, it is GPL and thus it can only be used with a GPL kernel.

[...]
> I believe MIDI
> in Linux is covered by a /dev/midi, or something like that.  This is what
> I remember from the agonizing attempts at getting MIDI working over a year
> ago.  However, I can't possibly be conisidered an authority on this.

Well, Linux has more than just /dev/midi, but for OBOS I thought the kernel
driver could prove usefull, but then again it is GPL and I don't know if the
OBOS kernel is too. There are probably other open source drivers for the
MPU401 out there.

> MIDI is an exceedingly simple serial protocol, which is available for all
> to observe and learn.  I don't necessarily think it is the best idea to be
> worrying about hardware drivers at this junture(just a thought).

I think its ok to start with a kernel driver, but I think a modular approach
is best. So the kernel driver only provides access to the hardware, it does
not need the have a standard interface. Then a user space module can
be used to enable access to different kernel drivers. On top of that you
can then build the high level MIDI kit.

> For one
> thing, a great deal of MIDI interfaces these days are popping up in all
> sorts of places, especially USB.

With all these different MIDI interfaces it is best to not have a standard
kernel MIDI interface.

> You've probably noticed that I'm
> rambling like mad at this point, and that is because I'm at a loss as to
> where to begin.  Is there a resource online with which I can observe the
> MIDI api implementation in Beos?

The MIDI kit internals are not documented.

>  I can provide links/documentation for
> the MIDI spec to all that may be interested.

Do you have the official MIDI 1.0 specification? If yes, how does this
compare to the specs one can find online?

--martijn

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