[Bug 18764] MIDI messages don't all have a channel, and status should be part of data.

https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/show_bug.cgi?id=18764

--- Comment #25 from Florian Bomers <w3c_bugz@bome.com> 2012-09-10 08:06:38 UTC ---
(In reply to comment #24)
Chris, I am afraid that our discussion becomes circular...

Regarding the controllerist world:
Check out the MIDI spec of 50 controllers: I predict at least 45 of them
require Sys Ex for configuration and often for real time control. Your
Launchpad is one of the few control surfaces which does not use Sys Ex at all.
For any GM synth, to send master volume, you need Sys Ex.

> And my crescent wrench makes a pretty good hammer, too.

:) but what's the point? For the user who only sends 3 byte messages, it's
totally irrelevant, and functionally equivalent, if the method is declared with
up to 3 args or with var args. If it looks like a hammer, and works like a
hammer, everybody is happy!

> As to the various "performance isn't important here" comments - performance is
> always important.  But my point was really intended to be around the mental
> overhead of having to create two wrapper objects around three bytes of data.

I agree, too, but still I don't see the point of limiting it to 3 bytes. With
the variadic form, you'll get the performance and the mental optimization...

> Florian: are there are devices that choke on their own sysex in a single sysex
> packet?  I know of many devices (like my ancient Akai S612 sampler) that have a
> handshake protocol in sysex in order to keep from clogging the pipe, but I
> didn't remember any that had to have MIDI itself slowed down.

yes, in various forms. I know a couple first hand (sorry, no names, some of
them are customers). At the time, devices wouldn't keep up with original MIDI
speed. But they'd send out their bulk dumps slowly, too, so you wouldn't notice
if you just record it in a sequencer and play it back. Nowadays, the processors
in the devices are faster, but using USB can get them more bandwidth, too. I
publish a MIDI bulk dump program, and based on customer feedback and support
requests, its "throttling" mechanism is quite important. It splits up big Sys
Ex messages.

-- 
Configure bugmail: https://www.w3.org/Bugs/Public/userprefs.cgi?tab=email
------- You are receiving this mail because: -------
You are the QA contact for the bug.

Received on Monday, 10 September 2012 08:06:42 UTC