[webkit-dev] Adding Web MIDI API support to WebCore

[Maciej Stachowiak]

On Jan 19, 2013, at 11:20 AM, noam.rosenthal at nokia.com wrote:

> 
> 
> From: ext Maciej Stachowiak <mjs at apple.com>
> >  Is this API useful in any way for users who do not have specialized and somewhat uncommon hardware devices?
> You don't need a particular hardware to play MIDI; only a sound card.

OK, but - sending low-level MIDI commands in binary form is extremely unlikely to be the most effective way to get music out of your sound card. While in the past, games or audio software may have used MIDI rendered by an internal soundcard, my understanding is that nowadways this is almost never done. MIDI is mainly used for truly external outputs and inputs.

The spec describes its own purpose like this:

"The Web MIDI API is intended to enable direct access to devices that respond to MIDI - external synthesizers or lighting systems, for example, or even the software synthesizers that are built in to many common operating systems. The Web MIDI API is also explicitly designed to enable a new class of applications on the web that can respond to MIDI controller inputs - using external hardware controllers with physical buttons, knobs and sliders (as well as musical controllers like keyboard, guitar or wind instrument controllers) to control web applications."

On the face of it, this sounds like a non-mainstream use case.

Regards,
Maciej
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