[Vorbis-dev] libao - libsndfile plugin

[Antoine Mathys]

Hello,

I have written a libsndfile (http://www.mega-nerd.com/libsndfile/) file 
output plugin for libao.  For the moment I haven't done any changes to 
the core of libao. However some changes could make this more useful. 
Before I embark on anything like this I'd like to have your opinion on a 
few things.

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First, what do you prefer ?
1a. Keeping the AU/WAV/RAW plugins and adding libsndfile output as a new 
possibility, along potential other library-based output plugins (the 
current state of things).
1b. Getting rid of the (partial) AU/WAV/RAW implementations and using a 
good audio file I/O library. In that case, should the library be 
mandatory or should file output be optional ?
1c. Making it a compile time choice. By default, use the library if 
available, the built-in plugins otherwise.
1d. In cases (1b) and (1c) opting for a specific library (libsndfile is 
a very good choice for many reasons), instead of leaving the possibility 
to choose among several ones (which means more work) ?

I don't like (1a) myself. For an explanation, see 
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/R/reinvent-the-wheel.html. Just kidding...

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In any of these cases some changes could be useful, like
2a. (In case 1a) Passing the filename to the file output plugin so that 
it can guess the format by looking at the extension. Having to type 
"ogg123 -d sndfile -f x.wav -o format:wav" is ridiculous.
2b. Have a new "file" device that accepts an optional format option (or 
uses the file extension) and then dispatch to the right plugin. This is 
great because you could just type "ogg123 -d file x.wav x.ogg" and not 
have to worry about the choice of plugin for each format, which is now a 
compilation or configuration issue. I like this.

Waiting for your comments.

Best regards,
Antoine Mathys