Re: [microsound] Linux Audio List

[Alex Young <alex@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you consider it from a purely practical perspective, it may actually 
be best to have the following hierarchy:

OpenSourceSoftware
	CrossPlatform
	Linux
	MacOS
	Windows
	ContributingAndHacking

The reason I suggest this structure is that many people think 'I want 
to run software on my computer which runs on ..., what options do I 
have?'  You may think having a topic for each OS is silly since some 
software runs on more than one of them.  However, the software has 
different installation requirements, and these should be detailed on 
the wiki.

The ContributingAndHacking section is what I believe could be the most 
interesting.  Contributing would give a general overview on how to 
participate in open source projects.  If you're not a programmer you 
may not be aware of how to do this, but open source projects often need 
artists, musicians and translators.  Hacking would be a brief guide on 
the technical side of working with open source projects to add new 
features.

While open source software is important in some respects, we shouldn't 
forget the importance of open standards.  I use Mac OS X and Linux 
interchangeably professionally and at home because of open standards, 
and as a web developer I often have to justify the importance of open 
standards to colleagues and clients.  I even (by choice!) purchase 
software I consider to be useful to me.  There are several commercial 
products I love to use, just as there are synths I love too.  I think 
it would be very nice to show users, especially new computer musicians, 
what commercial products can actually be used to create music with 
microsound techniques.

Therefore I suggest the addition of the following topics on the wiki in 
addition to the above:

CommercialSoftware
	Sequencers
	DAW
	Sampling
	Plug-ins
	etc...

CommercialHardware
	DSPCards
	Synths
	Effects

CommercialSoftware and CommercialHardware would give details on what 
products people are using to create microsound-related work.

OpenStandards
	Animation - containing SVG, OpenML and probably a reference to 
ECMAScript
	AudioEncoding - containing Vorbis, FLAC, AAC, etc
	MathML - just because some users here will be interested in this

Licensing
	ChoosingALicense - choosing a license for your work
	GPL
	LGPL
	BSD
	CreativeCommons


****
A footnote on open standards:
****

In case you don't understand why I get worked up by open standards, 
consider this hypothetical scenario:  A consumer buys a portable 
minidisc recorder.  While this person doesn't demand a circuit diagram 
of how the device works, they expect it to work with their devices at 
home.   When they get home they find they can't transfer recorded audio 
from the optical out to their computer that runs (something that isn't 
Windows.)  I've seen this happen, and people just accept it!

--
homepage: http://alex.bash.sh/
music: http://noise.me.uk


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