Chapter 6. Introduction

Table of Contents
Currently available sequencer
New sequencer
Concept of clients
Architecture
Client applications
Client interfaces
Client communication
Sequencer ports
OSS Compatibility
Memory pool
Synchronization
Timing and Synchronization

Currently available sequencer

The currently available sequencer interfaces for Linux are the /dev/sequencer and /dev/music from the Open Sound System, OSS or OSS/Free. Though these interfaces are sufficiently useful for most sequencer applications they have a few shortcomings:

Especially the 2nd issue restricts building midi oriented applications that can perform on-par with applications on Apple Macinctoshes and Atari ST's regarding real-time response. Examples:

In practice the currently available (OSS) sequencer seems to be best suited for applications that only perform playback of event like eg. MIDI and MOD file players.