[Coco] DW4 and Linux sound

[Aaron Wolfe]

On Sat, Nov 17, 2012 at 1:54 PM, Steven Hirsch <snhirsch at gmail.com> wrote:
> Aaron,
>
> I just discovered that DW4 grabs /dev/dsp for sound output on Linux. That's
> not an optimal way to do things, since that device is not multiplexed.  When
> DW4 is running, nothing else can produce audio!
>

This is a function of the way your distribution configures Java and/or
the midi system.   You can almost certainly change it by modifying the
JVM configuration.  You can also disable MIDI, and DW4 will not access
the sound system at all.

> If you ever revisit this, it might be better to use the ALSA API for audio.
> ALSA lets you open the output device in a shared mode that mixes the sound
> from multiple applications.
>

There is no facility in a Java application for choosing the operating
specific sound mechanism, since Java applications are OS agnostic.
The same sound code in DW4 works on Windows, OSX, etc in addition to
Linux.. it has no concept of ALSA, Pulse, or any linux specific sound
stuff.

> Otherwise, things look great!  I have not been active with my Coco systems
> in quite a while and was pleased to find that everything "just worked" when
> I installed 4.3.0 and fired up the Coco3.
>

That's good!  I've been getting a lot of "just worked" reports lately,
so I think I'm finally getting close to where I wanted it to be.  Not
quite there yet, but close.

> Steve
>
>
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