Add a big comment about cross-platform issues (especially OpenBSD).

This should be turned into a footnote by someone who actually
understands OSS and its relationship to Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD,
etc.
This commit is contained in:
Greg Ward 2003-05-03 19:45:47 +00:00
parent bf8f1b55a8
commit c50b088cfd
1 changed files with 33 additions and 7 deletions

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@ -2,20 +2,46 @@
Access to OSS-compatible audio devices}
\declaremodule{builtin}{ossaudiodev}
\platform{Linux, FreeBSD}
\platform{Linux, FreeBSD, possibly other \UNIX-like systems}
\modulesynopsis{Access to OSS-compatible audio devices.}
% XXX OSS is standard for Linux and FreeBSD -- what about NetBSD?
% OpenBSD? others?
This module allows you to access the OSS (Open Sound System) audio
interface. OSS is available for a wide range of open-source and
commercial Unices, and is the standard audio interface for Linux (up to
kernel 2.4) and FreeBSD.
commercial Unices, and is the standard audio interface for Linux and
recent versions of FreeBSD.
% Things will get more complicated for future Linux versions, since
% ALSA is in the standard kernel as of 2.5.x. Presumably if you
% use ALSA, you'll have to make sure its OSS compatibility layer
% is active to use ossaudiodev, but you're gonna need it for the vast
% majority of Linux audio apps anyways.
%
% Sounds like things are also complicated for other BSDs. In response
% to my python-dev query, Thomas Wouters said:
%
% > Likewise, googling shows OpenBSD also uses OSS/Free -- the commercial
% > OSS installation manual tells you to remove references to OSS/Free from the
% > kernel :)
%
% but Aleksander Piotrowsk actually has an OpenBSD box, and he quotes
% from its <soundcard.h>:
% > * WARNING! WARNING!
% > * This is an OSS (Linux) audio emulator.
% > * Use the Native NetBSD API for developing new code, and this
% > * only for compiling Linux programs.
%
% There's also an ossaudio manpage on OpenBSD that explains things
% further. Presumably NetBSD and OpenBSD have a different standard
% audio interface. That's the great thing about standards, there are so
% many to choose from ... ;-)
%
% This probably all warrants a footnote or two, but I don't understand
% things well enough right now to write it! --GPW
\begin{seealso}
\seetitle[http://www.opensound.com/pguide/oss.pdf]
{Open Sound System Programmer's Guide}
{the official documentation for the OSS C API}
{Open Sound System Programmer's Guide} {the official
documentation for the OSS C API}
\seetext{The module defines a large number of constants supplied by
the OSS device driver; see \file{<sys/soundcard.h>} on either
Linux or FreeBSD for a listing .}