On Mon, 9 May 2011 14:55:36 +0200
Alexandre Ratchov <a...@caoua.org> wrote:
> On Mon, May 09, 2011 at 02:56:28PM +0300, Sviatoslav Chagaev wrote:
> > On Mon, May 9, 2011 at 4:48 AM, Jacob Meuser <jake...@sdf.lonestar.org>
> > wrote:
> > > On Mon, May 09, 2011 at 01:32:49AM +0300, Sviatoslav Chagaev wrote:
> > >> * sorted output looks cleaner, prettier;
> > >> * it's easier to find the variable you're looking for in a sorted
> > >> output;
> > >> * hierarchical variable names yet unordered? doesn't make sense;
> > >> * this way mixerctl's behaviour will be closer to other *ctl programs
> > >> which output variables in an ordered fashion (audioctl, sysctl,
> > >> wsconsctl).
> > >
> > > these are all matters of opinion, except for "hierarchical variable names"
> > > which is not technically the case here.
> > >
> >
> > Okay, but what about making mixerctl more similar to other *ctl?
> >
>
> sysctl is a tree, while the mixer is not a tree. It's not either a
> linear bunch of strings.
You are talking about how it's implemented. For all I care -- it can
have neural networks inside of it.
Each next layer of software provides a higher level abstraction. Device
specific audio driver -> device independent audio driver ->
mixerctl/audioctl.
I always thought that the idea behind the *ctl programs is to provide a
way to configure totally different things in a similar manner.
Therefore *ctl programs should behave as similarily as possible.
>
> Sorting it doesn't make much sense imho. Furthermore, sorting mixctl
> as strings is easy with sort(1) so it's not absolutely necessary;
mixerctl is the only *ctl program for which I use "| sort" all the
time.
> while it would kill the widget order exposed by the driver.
>
Both you and Jacob Meuser mentioned this, but what is this information
useful for? I already can figure out which widgets are related just by
looking at the names of the variables.
> -- Alexandre
Excerpt from mixerctl(1) manpage:
...
EXAMPLES
Show possible values for all mixer variables, and their current settings:
$ mixerctl -av
inputs.mic=0,0 volume
inputs.mic.mute=off [ off on ]
inputs.cd=220,220 volume
inputs.cd.mute=off [ off on ]
inputs.dac=220,220 volume
inputs.dac.mute=off [ off on ]
record.record=220,220 volume
record.record.source=mic [ mic cd dac ]
monitor.monitor=0 volume
...
Maybe the original author of mixerctl didn't think of adding sorting
because on his computer the output looked more or less ordered.
