[gmpi] Re: Out-of-Band: suggestion for rethink
- From: "gogins@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <gogins@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 11:38:52 -0400
This will not work, for the same reason that the original format is not
working.
After participating in the discussions on this list, I have learned some
things, but I have concluded that designing an API by committee is an
inherently flawed proposition.
If it's going to work at all, I suggest (again) that people propose their
own versions of the API, or of those sections of it that they have a
particular interest in.
It should be required that each proposal consist of a reference
implementation including both host and plugin. Discussions can then be
replaced by experiments or even tests. One virtue of this requirement is
that the APIs will perforce be simple enough to use, since probably none of
us has time to write and debug anything very elaborate.
This is how the big boys make these kinds of decisions: selection from
competitive solutions.
Original Message:
-----------------
From: Paul Davis paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 2003 09:33:32 -0400
To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [gmpi] Out-of-Band: suggestion for rethink
I'm not convinced that the design process that has been outlined for
GMPI is going to work. Watching the discussion about most items
appears to me to have the following pattern:
* a question is posed.
* an initial set of answers, most of them based
on experience with existing plugin APIs comes forth.
* objections to one or more of the answers arrives,
based on experience with existing plugin APIs and/or
projections about future scenarios.
* the topic is thrashed to death until only the people
who really, really care about it are still paying
any attention (and perhaps not even them).
* slowly, everybody's interest in the overall process
diminishes.
And this is just for the *requirements* phase of the process.
I've been an advocate of this model for some time, because I felt that
collecting requirements without entering a genuine design phase was a
good idea. Having seen it action for several months, I no longer
believe that its going to work, and I'd like to propose an
alternative.
I think that we should people to issue summaries of existing plugin
APIs. Each summary should answer each question that Ron originally set
up as the agenda. It should also contain any meta comments about the
plugin API ("works, but clumsy", "confusingly named functions",
etc). It should finish by trying to summarize what there is that is
worth keeping about the API, and what should be thrown away. Its fine
for there to be multiple summaries of a given API ***BUT*** each one
must be "complete" - no little niggling comments about a given API, no
one-line critiques of this API or that API.
At the end of this (meaning some period of time, hopefully collecting
commentaries for VST(i), CoreAudio, DX(i), TDM, RTAS, MAS, LADSPA, and
any others), we will have a clear overview of the state of the game
right now. We should then try to come up with a synthesis of the
results, but working from existing material rather than grasping at
some intangible set of "desires".
Right now, I feel that we are attempting to pluck cards out of thin
air and put them on the table. I think it would be more productive,
and a lot faster, to put a pile of cards on the table, and spend time
shuffling them around, using the original agenda as a guideline for
what we're trying to accomplish.
I'm sure that people on the list will let me know what you think of
this idea.
--p
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