[PlanetCCRMA] Installing src.rpms instead

[Fernando Pablo Lopez-Lezcano]

> Has the topic of installing src.rpms with synaptic or apt-get been discussed 
> already? I've been searching on this topic lately and end up finding old, 
> conflicting, or just incomprehensible pages on the web.
> Is installing packages like Zynaddsubfx or alsamodularsynth via src.rpm more 
> beneficial than a pre-compiled binary? 

I don't think so. It obviously depends on which software package we are
talking about. Some operations could be a little faster but the
advantage is probably not worth the extra work. I have created
686/athlon versions of some packages (like the fftw libraries), I guess
optimizing libraries make sense as they are used by many other programs.
Perhaps it would make sense for LADSPA plugins if the software supported
fine grain control of optimizations (I think Steve was going to do that
with his swh collection). 

Obviously gentoo fans will disagree :-)

> Can I do this in synaptic or am I 
> stuck with the command line apt-get source <package name>? 

I have never tried synaptics for that. Anyway, not much of an advantage
as you are also "stuck to the command line" for rebuilding the package
itself. 

> Are there any 
> good resources on editing spec files and optimizing for specific cpus?
> If this has been covered, my apologies.

If you are interested in super optimizing your system Gentoo may be a
better fit than RedHat/Fedora. Anyway, I think the _real_ advantage
would not be that big. 

-- Fernando