[oss-devel] hdaudio mixer layout

[Hannu Savolainen]

Clive Wright wrote:
> A problem with the hdaudio mixer was that the amount of horizontal 
> screen space required to display it in ossxmix, even with the "-n2" 
> option was often wider than the average desktop. This has been 
> addressed post build 1009 by:
>
> a) Removing duplicate elements and those that have nothing to control.
>
> b) Creating a separate mute group if possible.
>
> c) Reducing the number of connectors in a connector group from 4 to 3,
>    in line with the number of rec# groups in a recorder group.
>
> I agree with a) and b) but find that c) results in an ugly mixer 
> layout as my mixer has connectors that naturally belong in 2 groups of 
> 4 not groups of 3, (1+2) and 2.
The number of connectors depends on the system. With group size of 4 it 
may happen that you have 5 jacks which gives one full group and another 
with just one jack.

Unfortunately it looks like no automatic "layout" algorithm can be 
developed to generate acceptable mixer interfaces from the information 
provided by the codecs. Instead we are working on another approach where 
each motherboard/laptop can have mixer designed by hand. There will be a 
generator that creates a template which can then be fine tuned manually.
> Whilst I understand that this may not always be the case for hdaudio 
> mixers I find that by reverting to groups of 4 and using 
> MIXER_CAP_LAYOUT_B, a facility that has been provided but hitherto 
> unused, a more compact and natural mixer layout can be achieved.
I will check if MIXER_CAP_LAYOUT_B makes any difference.

Best regards,

Hannu