Re: [fluid-dev] Timing revisited

[Josh Green]

On Sat, 2009-04-25 at 21:30 +0200, David Henningsson wrote:
> About the buffer, first I think it should be an additional component
> between the "producer" and the synth. We don't want to introduce the
> overhead of thread safety when we don't need it, e g when using fast
> midi-file rendering or in some embedded cases.
> 
> Second, I was thinking perhaps this buffer is the sequencer? A sequencer
> is really just a buffer with the additional feature of delaying an event
> (which can come in handy if we want a really stable midi file player in
> combination with low latency).
> 


Indeed that does make sense that the circular buffer is the sequencer.
It starts getting more complex when events are removed in non FIFO
order.  Rather then re-invent something that is already out there,
perhaps we should do some research on how other projects have tackled
this.


> > It would be nice to start using glib for some basic things, like data
> > types, hash tables, etc.  Cleaning up main could also be refreshing :)
> > Perhaps I'll get inspired to tackle some of that.  
> 
> That would be nice. I have not used glib but it seems to come in handy.
> For Linux I assume depending on glib would not be a problem, but will
> there be problems on other ports?
> 


glib is available for just about any Unix system (Linux, BSDs, Mac OS X,
etc), Windows and apparently OS/2.  It does add an additional dependency
of course, which would need to be provided, either packaged with
FluidSynth or otherwise.  For the sake of cleaner and more portable
code, I think it is worth it.

I'm thinking of dropping the Mac OS 9 support in FluidSynth.  If anyone
objects, you better speak up!


> > Hows it coming along with committing your patches?  
> 
> I've committed three patches so far:
> 
> #172 - Fix bank selection logic, as reported by D Bartolec
> 
> #173 - Fixed sample rate warning message. There should have been a
> warning from the compiler about this I think, perhaps we should look
> into that to avoid similar errors in the future?
> 
> #177 - Sample timers and fast MIDI-file rendering (fixes ticket #15)
> I've been hesitating about committing that patch since it breaks
> Bernat's thoughts about FluidSynth's future...? Anyway, it's there now,
> hopefully we can work on "perfecting" it.
> 


I believe Bernat has decided to hold off on 2.x branch for now, at least
that is what I gathered from his communications.  1.1.0 is a chance to
add some new features and API, mark older stuff as deprecated and keep
API compatibility at the same time.


> > How sensitive do you think your patch is to changes?
> 
> Neither my patch or I will take any offense if you change it to the
> better ;-)
> 


Actually I was referring to whether it would be harder to apply your
patch if I started changing other things.  I'm sure your patch is
already perfect ;)


> // David
> 

Regards,
        Josh