[gmpi] Re: Reqs final draft

  • From: "Didier Dambrin" <didid@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2005 02:46:16 +0100



Well, I think that this is an undue burden on hosts. Lets say GMPI chooses to require me to mask exceptions, but I don't like that decision


ok but.. why?

doesn't it make sense that an exception due to the math unit is the LAST thing you'd want in your mixing thread? Those can crash an app real bad.

Catching exceptions is great.. when you debug your code.


for my host. Then for every GMPI plugin I have to change the CPU flags on the way in and the way out, even though most plugins won't care. If it is the plugin's responsibility, then only the plugin's that care will need to make the change, and only if the host has a disagreement with the plugin and has the thread set differently. Or, even better, the plugin can simply run in the environment set by the host, even if that means that the plugin may not sound its best in a particular host.


Note that the FPU precision can be critical in some cases. There are fast tricks to truncate floats, and if the precision is not what you expect, they will just not work. But ok, a plugin that uses them will probably set the precision itself for safety.



And more: restoring the FPU state is just a matter of setting it when you know it's a constant. When you don't know, you will first have to read it. Today's hosts render in smaller & smaller slices (considering the user always wants a shorter latency), playing with the FPU state all the time can waste a little CPU - won't be huge, but it's still wasted.




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