[alsa-devel] [PATCH 1/2] amidi: ignore not only Active Sensing but all System Real-Time messages

[Ricard Wanderlof]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2016, Clemens Ladisch wrote:

> Ricard Wanderlof wrote:
> >
> > I would argue that it would be better to have both options, somehow. I.e.
> > active sensing is mostly a nuisance, but I can imagine occasions
> > (analyzing the output from a sequencer perhaps) where one would want to
> > keep the rest of the real time messages.
> 
> I can imagine this too, and even more complex filters.
> 
> But the amidi tool is designed to be simple, and works on the lowest
> level, with raw MIDI bytes.  This makes it appropriate to handle SysEx
> stuff and to debug low-level hardware problems, but when you care about
> the semantics of the messages, you should use a higher-level tool, such
> as aseqdump.
> 
> Filtering out clock messages serves an actual need.  But I am not
> willing to add complexity for a problem that is, at the moment, nothing
> but a figment of our imaginations.

My argument is really that currently amidi has an option for filtering out 
active sensing, which has probably been added as it serves a useful 
purpose in its own right. The patch replaces that filter with one that 
filters out everything from F8 (clock) and up, I think it would be better 
to keep the existing option, and add a new one, rather than to essentially 
change the meaning of the existing option.

I agree that more advanced filtering should be left to another 
application. 

/Ricard
-- 
Ricard Wolf Wanderlöf                           ricardw(at)axis.com
Axis Communications AB, Lund, Sweden            www.axis.com
Phone +46 46 272 2016                           Fax +46 46 13 61 30