how is pulseaudio supposed to work?

Les Mikesell lesmikesell at gmail.com
Sun Dec 23 00:23:28 UTC 2007


Lennart Poettering wrote:

>> I can understand a system that has barely outgrown single-user concepts or 
>> something designed as a toy for kids that don't know enough to clean up 
>> after themselves making abrupt decisions based on guesswork about what you 
>> might sometimes want.  I don't understand it as default behavior for a 
>> system that is otherwise elegant in multi-user, multi-tasking operation and 
>> doing what you tell it to do.  If I want it to to stop playing music that 
>> I've started, I'll tell it to, thank you.
> 
> Could we please just stop this ever-repeating discussion?

Maybe... But could you provide some assurance that your choice of 
behavior will either be well-documented or changed before being pushed 
into RHEL (and thus its clones)?

> I already wrote multiple times that I am aware that some people would
> like the music to continue to play while you switch sessions. And I
> also wrote multiple times that I will eventually add support for that,
> but it is not high-priority for me. 
> 
> I do believe that exclusive acccess to the audio devices should be our
> focus for now. (And I am not the only one thinking that)

Exclusive access isn't the issue (although I'd prefer multiplexing with 
an option to grab a kernel lock).  Changing it as a side effect of 
mostly-unrelated events is.

> So, that is as good as it gets for now.

I'm very happy to know that the system includes the option to be 
configured so it takes away access whimsically - my complaint is not 
specifically about PA or its capabilities, just that this very 
un-unixlike and thus unexpected behavior is the default embedded in the 
distribution.

> If you are not happy with my choice of priorities, then feel free to
> contribute, I am happy to merge all (good quality) patches. This is
> Free Software after all, it's all about scratching your itches!
> 
> Also, if multi-user Fedora behaves this way or that way by default --
> how many people do you think will even notice? You're making way to
> much fuss about this minor aspect of f-u-s.

The fact that most people won't know is precisely my problem with this. 
  In my opinion, people should damn well know what to expect from a 
unix-like OS.  If everyone really thinks that the system should no 
longer do precisely what you tell it to do, please get that philosophy 
into the release notes and other publicity, or even better, make it a 
clear choice to be made at install/configuration time.  I might even be 
convinced it was a good thing and choose it myself for some situations 
if it was a well-explained option.

> Please let's stay focused and spend more time on actually hacking
> instead of reading and replying to multi-week-long flamewars!

I think you should expect flames about any unexpected behavior changes. 
    What kind of person _wants_ surprises from his computer? This 
doesn't mean that changes can't be improvements, but they are better if 
they aren't surprising.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com





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