[jazzplusplus-devel] Initial considerations regarding inbuilt jazz++ documentation (jazz.tex)

[D.B. M. <db...@ho...>]

Greetings,

//for the benefit of list members ;- this posting is subsequent
//to some topics discussed between Pete and myself in private
//emails before I joined the list


               This content is now in my focus, however I've only
done a preliminary perusal of the existing (old..) documentation,
for the purpose of forming a rewrite stratagem. I'm hoping that
raising this discussion here will help form and clarify this process
*before* I actually start work in this area....so....

Quite obviously, the existing documentation is quite out-of-step
with what the eventual release of jazz++ will be - it will look different,
it may have different functions or do things in different ways than
previous releases of jazz - I have no real way of accurately forecasting
what these differences or changes might be - this is particularly so in
the linux case with the current status of 'minimal functionality'.

Questions: How disparate ..functionality wise...is the current Windows
build compared to the Mac & Linux positions? Are all the builds 'on
the same page' as it were?

In any event and as I infer here, updates to these areas of the
documentation will become apparent as functionality increases,
and will move in concert, with one area slightly behind the other.

Likewise, screen-shots are bound up in here somewhere as well.

That said, other sections of jazz.tex are really dated and out-of-sync
with the current linux position regarding audio/MIDI device options,
be that real hardware devices/cards, or 'pseudo' devices like the many
linux applicable 'softsynth' applications that exist today (which weren't
around when the original docs were drafted)...not to mention many
MIDI applications that have sprung up between then and now as well.

Seeing as we both agreed upon some form of 'how to use jazz++ with 'x''
(where 'x' is one of those applications I speak of above) section, I'll get
to a draft of that in the coming time. Remember though, interoperability
and functionality usually go hand in hand, and so I'm thinking everything
I've touched on so far will move forward at about the same rate...


Other sections, I want to fix right away....in particular, references to
'OSS' sound drivers for linux. I mean...even if one does want to use 
the old OSS API, you're going to use 'snd-*-oss' modules that plugin
to the alsasound API ...so I think OSS is fairly redundant stuff now. 

I think what I would like to do, is remove all references to the old
OSS modules altogether, and instead just touch upon same in a 
short introductory paragraph to this particular section, along the
lines of -- 'In the past, jazz++ relied on the now deprecated 'OSS'
sound drivers in linux, to......'  , following this up with a short
paragraph explaining the state of play now with linux and the 
alsasound drivers....and beyond that, the configuration details
focus entirely on what's current with linux today.

What do we think here? Comments? Thoughts?

Finally, I just want to say I'll be reliant on people running jazz++
on platforms other than linux, to supply  any documentation
and/or other material that's specific to the platform they use. 
I'm figuring there shouldn't be too much difference between 
the various builds...but where there is, be sure to let me know 
about it...(or submit same yourself).

Regards,


Donald B



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