Why can't i access /dev/dsp or /dev/snd on my XO

[victor]

Ah, I thought you were saying there was some problem with
Csound's MIDI implementation... (in which case we needed
to fix it). No need for that, all's well. Yes, Csound can handle
MIDI and it has done it for the most part of fifteen years.

I can't speak for TamTam because I am not involved in their
design details, but I can say this, Csound's standard score 
preceeds MIDI by at least a decade (or two if you consider where
it came from). It is much more flexible to convey musical data
than MIDI. There are MIDI to csound score converters, but
that is beside the point, because Csound can play MIDI files
directly, receive realtime MIDI data and even output it.
There is no problem whatsoever, with the proper instruments,
Csound will be a MIDI synthesizer like any other. The main
thing is, that it is not limited to it (thank goodness...).

(In fact, I am hoping that with the work on a sugar toolkit for Csound
apps, things like MIDI players will be put together with minimal
effort).

If you think that a MIDI file output for TamTam is needed,
then you should suggest it to them. So you'll be able to produce
these and play them on the XO laptop with.... Csound!

Perhaps we need to get more users from the Csound
community involved in the OLPC effort, so that they can
educate everyone in the ins and outs of the software.

Victor

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Albert Cahalan" <acahalan at gmail.com>
To: "victor" <Victor.Lazzarini at nuim.ie>
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 9:00 PM
Subject: Re: Why can't i access /dev/dsp or /dev/snd on my XO


> On Jan 19, 2008 2:48 PM, victor <Victor.Lazzarini at nuim.ie> wrote:
>> Hmm, if there are problems with Csound and
>> MIDI (of which I am not aware), we need to fix
>> them. Can you provide an example?
> 
> I'll start with the user-visible thing which is probably
> not entirely Csound's fault. Tam Tam is not using
> MIDI for input, output, or saved work. It should be
> using MIDI for all three, because MIDI is the standard
> for everything from consumer toys to professional
> performances. Even the selfish companies like Sony
> and Microsoft support MIDI.
> 
> From what I can tell, MIDI is not the native format for
> Csound. Musical scores are stored in an incompatible
> format. I can't play one with any normal MIDI player.
> I can only use Csound to play one. This is bad.
> 
> This isn't even like the *.mp3 or *.doc situation. There
> is no legal barrier to being standard. There is no problem
> with lack of documentation. Open source MIDI tools
> even exist, which does bring into question the need for
> having Csound at all.