[SDL] (no subject)

[Ryan C. Gordon]

> SDL_audio seems like it gives you the most control, but also is the most 
> work.  SDL_mixer seems closest to what I want…

If you need to play a few common audio file formats, and get ahold of 
the uncompressed data right before it goes to the hardware (for both 
visualization and maybe modifying), SDL_mixer is probably what you'll 
want, between those two options.

> What’s the party line these days about which one to use – or does it 
> depend on the application?

Depends on the application. It's worth noting that SDL_mixer is built on 
top of SDL, though, so it's largely a question of whether SDL_mixer is 
more convenient to use.

> What’s the one that’s the most active right now? (i.e. people are 
> working on it, fixing bugs, etc…)

Between the two? It's a tossup...we consider all bugs when reported for 
both libraries, but aren't actively developing either the SDL 1.2 audio 
API or SDL_mixer (largely because both work as advertised at the moment, 
and new feature development for SDL is going into the 1.3 branch, which 
isn't ready for production use yet).

--ryan.