[openbeosmediakit] Re: Common Plugin API for BeOS Audio

Hi Frans (and everyone else)...

I've given the same issue a lot of thought - I absolutely (100%) 
believe the right
path here is to use the MediaNode facilities provided by the mediakit. 

The reasons for this are numerous 

- Part of the OS - integrated.
- Access to plugins from a variety of formats via wrappers (VST etc)
- Connection/management facilities through the media roster
- Format agnostic
- Controls published via ParameterWeb
- Offline and realtime runmodes

etc

One of the main issues with the media kit is the fact that the 
groundwork is there, but
there are relatively few niceties as you get in the rest of BeOS - in 
this context, what 
you are proposing is basically a convenience class for nodes 
specifically dealing with 
audio data. I've written a very basic 'AudioFilter' class myself, 
although its probably
not suitable for release.

AddOns are already quite easy to load in BeOS - although an 'easy' 
application-managed media=5Faddon=5Fserver (based on Cortex AddOnHost 
perhaps=3F) 
would certainly be something to look at.

If you are setting up a list, I am very keen to discuss this - I think 
a few well 
documented nodes of this type could really help kickstart media 
development.

I don't want to see a separate standard emerge outside of the existing 
structure -
if there is something lacking in the media system as it is now, we 
should certainly
expand and improve (I'm happy to discuss these ideas too, although a 
lot is probably 
GlassElevator territory...)

btw re : VSTi - this is something we can create a wrapper for, as 
mentioned above.

David Shipman

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