Re: ANNOUNCE: big change in PCM kernel API

[Alan Cox]

> The only drawback is that the maximum number of pcm devices for card is
> decreased to 8 from 16, but this will change when linux kernel will use
> a wider kdev_t.
> 
> Obviously the OSS emulation behaviour is intact.

The OSS API appears to be making a subtle change for 2.4, not one I planned
but one that several groups arrived at and which I can't find an application
that breaks from.

On the new trident driver and on the SB Live! driver opening /dev/dsp gets
you a new free channel if there are any free channels on the card.

Both drivers get the locking wrong right now (hint - need to drop the inode
lock as they share the inode and one sleeping on a write locks out the other)
but the API change seems sane and I think we should tweak other cards with
many channels to do the same (eg the ESS Maestro)

Views from the ALSA side ?

Alan