From:	mcchow AT onebox DOT com (Jabez McClelland)
Newsgroups:	comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject:	Allegro: slow install_sound() and compile on 486
Date:	22 Nov 2001 19:57:38 -0800
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To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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Reply-To:	djgpp AT delorie DOT com

Hello all,

I've got Allegro and DJGPP installed on a 486 40MHz DOS machine with 8
Mb RAM(please don't laugh).  Actually, I'm not interested in making
games, but rather
I want to use the sound libraries to control the SoundBlaster 16 card
as a data acquisition system.  Let's just say I'm always looking for
ways to make that old box useful...

I installed Allegro according to the readme file and all went
smoothly,
though the full make (which I didn't try to modify) did take > 12
hours (!).

Things seem to work - I managed to get a wav file to play... even
though I can't use the test routines without modification, because my
graphics is miserable (16 colors max!).

Here's what I'm up against now, and could use some advice on:  

- The call to install_sound(DIGI_AUTODETECT, MIDI_AUTODETECT, NULL)
takes
a full 45 seconds to execute.  I wonder if I'm stuck with that, or
whether
there might be a way to speed it up.  Thinking the AUTODETECT might be
running into a timeout of some kind I lifted the section of code from
the "play.c" test program to get the digicard and midicard parameters
that way.  That didn't work (install_sound returned -1).

- I noticed during the compile of Allegro a flag in the standard make
process was set to "pentium."  Should this be set to 486, and would
that
optimize the compile better?  How do I do that?  

- If I'm going to recompile Allegro, is there a way to compile only
the
sound routines and skip the graphics, so it doesn't take too long? 
Sorry if this is a dumb question - I'm a bit of a novice with DJGPP.
 

Thanks for any help/advice.

Jabez

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