[gmpi] Re: Topic 7.1: Channel Formats

  • From: Mike Berry <mberry@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: gmpi@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 17:05:34 -0600


Paul Davis wrote:

c) 1-or-more named bundles of streams with defined, enumerated formats.  The
format defines (either as flags, multiple fields, whatever) the data type
(int, float, double...), the number of channels (1, 2, 6..), the encoding
(mono, stereo, 5.1...), and the storage (normal, interleaved...).  Each port
of a plugin needs to list, in order of preference (or somehow wieghted), the
formats it can handle.


you know, this is heading toward the exact same conceptual
disagreement that we've had between ALSA and JACK. ALSA represents
every possible audio hardware format you can come up, and a few more
to just to be sure. JACK by contrast enforces mono, normalized
32 bit floating point.


which one do you think most people like working with?
which one has the least scope for obscure format handling bugs?

(sorry to repeat myself for long-time LAD readers) i think we should
be learning the lessons that SGI learnt from their video APIs. come up
with a simple API that handles 90% of what people want to do, which is
normally very straightforward. then figure out clever ways to support
the remaining 10% without destroying the simplicity of the basic API. SGI did the almost-opposite: come up with a simple API then keep
extending and extending it until it supported everything. it ended
being almost unusable without spending months studying the API.


--p

I have to agree here, and add another point that I am worried about. If you have a wide variety of formats and channel mappings, then hosts and plugins will be unlikely to support them all. This means that GMPI will de facto settle on a few formats because that is what the majority support, but this decision will be made ad hoc and without good workarounds for those who need to support something that the majority has discarded.
One of VST's strengths is that there is one audio format and one buffer channel type. (One of its drawbacks is that it did not solve the speaker assignment system very well).


--
Mike Berry
Adobe Systems


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