[alsa-devel] [RFC, alsa-utils] RFC: alsamixer: Improve description of playback switches

[Takashi Iwai]

On Mon, 26 Mar 2018 07:11:44 +0200,
Kirill Marinushkin wrote:
> 
> Currently, all playback switches are described as mute. It is shown as:
> 
> [OO] == sound is on (left and right channels)
> [MM] == sound is muted (left and right channels)
> 
> But cards can have different kinds of switch controls, not only mute. At
> least usb-audio provides boolean controls as playback switches for:
> 
> * clock source validity (read only switch)
> * processing features on/off (rw switch)
> * potentially other similar use-cases
> 
> It becames confusing, because it is shown as:
> 
> [OO] == clock source is valid
> [MM] == clock source is invalid
> 
> [OO] == processing feature is on
> [MM] == processing feature is off
> 
> And from the help, it is not clear how to toggle such switches.
> 
> In this RFC, I suggest to show switches more generic:
> 
> [yy] == sound on    / clock source is valid   / processing feature is on
> [nn] == sound muted / clock source is invalid / processing feature is off

I don't think it's better solution, sorry.  The current symbol isn't
the best of the best, I admit.  But yy/nn isn't better from the
visibility POV, and what's worse is the sudden change of user
experience on such a long-living application.  Also, you can't expect
every user understanding English.

If the problem is about the mismatch of mute/non-mute symbol against
the switch state, we may blacklist / whitelist the element names.
At easiest, we can keep using mute symbol for "xxx Playback Switch".
This is very likely a mute control.  The rest is neutral, so something
more generic symbol can be used for on/off instead of 'M'.


thanks,

Takashi