Default audio output method should be taken from real world, not from outer space :)

[Andrei Kholodnyi]

On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 5:57 PM, Bohdan R. Rau <ethanak at polip.com> wrote:
> Hi
>
> Simple but annoying problem - default audio output method.
>
> In current code we have very interesting fragment (configuration.c):
>
> #ifdef __SUNPRO_C
> /* Added by Willie Walker - default to OSS for Solaris */
> ? ?GlobalFDSet.audio_output_method = g_strdup("oss");
> #else
> ? ?GlobalFDSet.audio_output_method = g_strdup("pulse");
> #endif /* __SUNPRO_C */
>
> Of course it works if we compile speech-dispatcher for Solaris or some
> Linux distribution (like Ubuntu) which has pulse compiled.
>
> On my system (PLD Linux) I have no pulse (and I don't need pulse, and even
> I don't want to hear anything about pulse on my box). I configure
> speech-dispatcher with only alsa as audio subsystem. But still default
> audio subsystem is pulse, not alsa, and I must manually configure alsa in
> speechd.conf after each compilation...
>
> For me it's big, old and ugly bug.

I agree, it shall be fixed.
When the only audio method is available it will be indeed straightforward.

with multiple audio backends one possible solution could be to define
e.g. --with-audio-output-method=<your favorite audio backend> while configure
and then put it with -DDEFAULT_AUDIO_METHOD as you have proposed
inside configuration.c

I'll provide a patch for it.