OSS Audio

blubee blubeeme gurenchan at gmail.com
Sun Dec 17 13:57:40 UTC 2017


On Sun, Dec 17, 2017 at 9:11 PM, Stefan Esser <se at freebsd.org> wrote:

> Am 17.12.17 um 02:06 schrieb blubee blubeeme:
> > This is why I am bringing up the issue and why I said the first step
> would
> > be porting the proper 4Front OSS into the kernel.
> >
> > It doesn't have to be the default at first but if it's not in the kernel
> > why bother wasting time to have it rejected because of all the
> > misconceptions I've been dealing with in these threads.
> >
> > Add 4Front OSS to the kernel
> > Use the 4.x API/ Documentation
> > Add it to an audio programming section of FBSD Handbook
> > Upstream changes that make sense
> > Simplify audio programming, documentation, all those audio sound servers
> > Port device drivers to the OSS Device Driver API:
> > http://manuals.opensound.com/sources/drv_index.html
>
> Do you propose to just update the code to what 4Front provides?
>
> This may work for you as individual user, but the 4Front license

This is not true. The source code is distributed under different license
based on the OS.
Look at audio/oss src build process.

If the code is compiled on Linux it has some Linux type gpl license, if
it's on a *BSD it has BSD license, there's also license that suits other
platforms as well.

There were some closed sourced parts because Hannu was trying different
license models to pay the bills but instead of supporting him, everyone
forked his code and left so he went on to do something else.


> makes
> it impossible to commit that version to FreeBSD. (That was the reason
> to stay at a reasonably licensed version, very long ago.)
>
> It seems like everyone has this cloud of OSS is crap floating around in
their minds, the guy just wanted to be able to work on his code and not
have to write windows drivers at the same time, that's not how things
played out.



> Or do you propose a clean-room implementation that in the end is fully
> compatible with 4Front OSS 4.x, but does not violate their license and
> intellectual property rights?
>
> You are welcome to start with such a clean-room implementation and it
> may even be accepted into FreeBSD, once you are ready (provided there
> really is no risk of legal problems in any part of the world).
>
> Regards, STefan
>

FreeBSD doesn't have many if any audio programmers, most of the programs
are ported from other platforms that do not follow good practices, then new
devs
come along, copy the old coding style and keep on perpetuating the bad
habits.


I propose properly implementing 4Font OSS 4.x in the FreeBSD kernel,
properly using the API as documented on 4Front website.
Have 4Front OSS the default audio system in FreeBSD

Having proper Audio programming guide in the FreeBSD handbook
ditch sndio and all that other stuff and move forward with a clean start
and proper documentation for new audio programs.

That's why I brought this issue up on this list is to try and hear from
people who are
doing audio but instead it's just a bunch of noise and misconceptions.


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