Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] sparc <--> x86 data exchange

[John Gilmore]

Three opinions...

  *  GNU Radio should be processing data in the local machine's native
     byte order and data format (e.g. IEEE float).  You should have to
     explicitly tell it to do something about byte order (e.g. convert
     samples to little-endian).

  *  Any conversions we offer should say nothing about machine types
     (x86), rather should be specific about byte orders.  E.g. we
     should not offer "convert longs from x86 to sparc", we should
     offer "output big-endian longs" and "input big-endian longs".
     These conversions would be implemented on all machine types, but
     of course on some of them there's no work to do.  An extra name
     for "big-endian" should be "in network byte order", for people
     who are squirting partially-processed data over the net to
     another signal processing program on an arbitrary machine.

(My opinions on byte order come from having co-designed and maintained
the "BFD" library that the GNU binutils use to read and write object
files, which require pervasive and specific attention to byte order.
We changed our byte-order API several times until we got it right and
easy to use.)

  *  I'm hesitant to make GNU Radio depend on Yet Another random
     library package like liboil.  Building it is already an exercise
     in frustration, as is trying to package it for a distribution.

Can't we skip some premature optimization and get back to making the
program do real things that real people want to do?  I don't see the
"obvious" GUI-operable scanners, recorders, radar screens, etc, that
our capabilities are supposed to make it easy to create.  We're how
many years into this package?, and still re-re-rewriting the guts.
Let's rather make it something that tens of thousands of people
would use to record multiple FM stations, or scan and log police and
ambulance frequencies, or TiVo the ham bands, or avoid DRM on
over-the-air TV transmissions.  Even our FM decoding is inferior to
what cheap transistor radios do.  Six months' focus on polish and
applications would make a world of difference.

Just my 2c...

        John