From c50b088cfd4f2f52a6e9aa87026b5e5c7a4760aa Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Greg Ward Date: Sat, 3 May 2003 19:45:47 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] 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. --- Doc/lib/libossaudiodev.tex | 40 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++------- 1 file changed, 33 insertions(+), 7 deletions(-) diff --git a/Doc/lib/libossaudiodev.tex b/Doc/lib/libossaudiodev.tex index 414ec670d5b..d9b4fe5603b 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/libossaudiodev.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/libossaudiodev.tex @@ -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 : +% > * 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{} on either Linux or FreeBSD for a listing .}