[PlanetCCRMA] Re: PlanetCCRMA digest, Vol 1 #156 - 3 msgs

[Mark Knecht]

>
> Not at all.
> Anyway, just make sure you also mention there are problems (but it is
> getting easier). When I talk about all this stuff I try to present both
> the advantages and disadvantages of the platform.
>

I must say that I think the disadvantages are very few. This has been such a
time saver for me. I like being involved with the developers and being able
to help them without having to deal with all of the low end problems that
I'm not good at solving anyway. This is the best of both worlds! Almost
everything is done for me, and I focus more attention on where I can help,
and also just on making music.

The only sort of fundamental problem that I occasionally feel is that
because Alsa is such an important piece of this pie, when a change come
along, there can be quite a delay before we get an update. Recently, since
I'm using a leading edge cards, I've had to wait. That's OK with me, but it
makes it difficult to interact with the developers who are looking for
faster feedback. I think that sometimes when we give fast feedback for some
things, but not for others, they may not understand why.

Even this morning Takashi-san released an Alsa patch for a problem I
reported a couple of months ago. He said it was very difficult to fix. I
told him privately I didn't know how I could test it for him since I was RPM
based, unless he put it into CVS.

For the future, if somehow the rpm generation process could be more end-user
oriented, that might be interesting. Think how interesting it could be if we
could have a web site that runs line xconfig does for kernel builds. I come
to the Planet, chose a bunch of options, and the Planet builds a new RPM for
me. That would be very cool. I could submit my own requirements, extra
patches, who know what, and get back a customize RPM. That would be cool...

And of course, I'm just dreaming!