The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20070107145127/http://0pointer.de:80/blog/projects/pulse.html
It came to our attention that some people really disliked the name ofPolypaudio, becauseit reminded them of thatmedical condition,though the software was actually named after thesea dweller. I actuallyliked that double entendre, but many did not and expressed concerns that the namewould hinder Polypaudio's adoption. After a long discussion on#polypaudio we came to the conclusion that a name change is a goodidea in this case. Name changes are usually a bad idea, but this time it'sworth it, we think.
The new name we agreed on isPulseAudio, or shorter justPulse. It hasthe nice advantage that it abbreviates topa, just asPolypaudio did. Thisallows us to keep source code compatiblity (and binary compatibility to acertain degree) with the current releases of Polypaudio, because the symbolprefix can staypa_. In addition the auxiliary toolspaman,pavucontrol,pavumeter need not tobe renamed.
We will try to make the transition as smooth as possible and would like toapologize to all the packagers, who need to rename their packages now.
The next release of Polypaudio (0.9.2) will be a bugfix release and be the first to bear the new name:PulseAudio 0.9.2.
Polypaudio is dead. Long live PulseAudio!
posted at: 18:22 | path:/projects |permanent link to this entry |10 comments
Posted byAlan H at Sun Aug 27 05:11:57 2006Suggestions:
Pulse audio preferences.
Avoid acronyms like LAN. Break it down: Local Area Network (LAN). Network is the keyword.
"Allow other machines on the Nework to browse for local sound devices"
At a glance this setting looks very similar to the setting just above it. Maybe there is a good reason for it but if it is not obvious at a glance then odds are it could be made easier and clearer.
The Gnome Human Interface Guidelines recommend "Don't be negative" ;) and I recommend "Do not abbreviate" which would change the next option to
"Require Authentication" and then you set the default value of the checkbox as needed.
More acronyms in the dialog, avoid them if at all possible. Acronyms make intelligent people look stupid, just ask a lawyer/doctor/accountant to throw some of their acronyms at you and prepare to be baffled.
The Pulse Audio Volume control uses mnenics on the tab labels. The Gnome HIG recommends against doing this, part of the reason being is it far too easy to end up with conflicting mnemonics.
Requiring right click is bad for accessibility, and the fact that you have to label it so clearly at the bottom shows you already know how bad it can be for discoverability.
from the larger screenshot showing various dialogs I see the sink dialog has bold text which is centre aligned. The Gnome HIG recommends you right align the text, it all fits with how English (and other languages) is written from left to right and how the reader can most easily follow it.
And one final suggestions and I understand you will probably disagree but only German allows you to put capitals in the middle of words so you should definately need to put a space between Pulse and Audio.
Look like great software, thanks for writing about it.
Posted byJohn at Sun Aug 27 05:38:16 2006This is amazing news. Thanks for the PerfectSetup wiki page also.
I cant wait to see this the default for GNOME!
Posted byMattW at Sun Aug 27 11:08:45 2006Impressive. Very impressive. Now if only everything used GStreamer...
Posted byPeteris Krisjanis at Sun Aug 27 12:13:00 2006I am just confused, where is reason to doing this seperately, in special sound server, not in GNOME Mixer, adding missed pieces and fixing bugs? It is just adding additional complexity to all system and drains developer resources, in my humble opinion. However, it is nice that someone does something at least in this front, so I downpay this effort not at all. I just want to know are devs very sure that it won't introduce lot of additional bugs and if it will, then how to deal with that.
Would like to know, just all :)
Peter.
Posted byLennart at Sun Aug 27 15:16:45 2006MattW: Why do you ask for everything to use GStreamer? PulseAudio is no way specific to GStreamer. We have a plugin in for ALSA's libasound library which allows you to access PulseAudio through the ALSA libraries much like a normal hardware sound card. In addition we support the OSS API very well. You should be able to run about 90% of all Linux sound applications on top of PulseAudio.
Posted byLennart at Sun Aug 27 15:21:59 2006Peteris: GNOME Mixer? Do you mean GSmartMix? PulseAudio is not really comparable with GSmartMix. In addition PulseAudio predates GSmartMix. And eventually PulseAudio will offer some way of integration into GSmartMix allowing volume control of PA with the GSmartMix tools.
The old sound server used by GNOME ("Esound") shows its age, PulseAudio tries to be its successor which does everything right what Esound did wrong.
Posted byLennart at Sun Aug 27 15:26:34 2006Alan: thanks for the advices. BTW: German doesn't allow you to put capitals in the middle of words as much as english doesn't. However it's used that way in ads.
Posted byMarius Gedminas at Sun Aug 27 15:41:05 2006Wow. I can't wait until PulseAudio makes it into my distro. Switching output from my local speakers to those connected to a different machine on my LAN in the middle of playback? Wow.
Can PulseAudio play the same stream on multiple sinks (say, two different machines on the LAN) with proper time synchronization?
Posted byLennart at Sun Aug 27 15:47:09 2006Marius: Yes it already can do that for you to a certain degree. However this still leaves some room for improvements.
Posted byRichard Palmer at Wed Nov 15 14:52:34 2006I am relatively new to Linux and currently enamoured of Zenwalk. Researdh suggests that PulseAudio will enable me to seamlessly integrate RealPlayer, Skype, Gzine etc.
As a former Win XP user I got used to the convenience of being able to switch between running sound applications without difficulty.
Best regards
Richard Palmer
Leave a Comment:
Syndicate: