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|
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" href="alut.css" type="text/css"/>
<title>The OpenAL Utility Toolkit</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>The OpenAL Utility Toolkit (ALUT)</h1>
<h1>Contents</h1>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#ReleaseHistory">Release History</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#Introduction">Introduction</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Licensing">Licensing</a></li>
<li><a href="#History">Some History</a></li>
<li><a href="#BackwardsCompatibility">Backwards Compatibility with Version 0.x.x</a></li>
<li><a href="#OpenGLGLUT">OpenGL, GLUT and using what you already know</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#CompilingLinking">Compiling and Linking</a>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#API">The ALUT API</a>
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#ErrorHandling">Error Handling</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#alutGetError">alutGetError</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutGetErrorString">alutGetErrorString</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#InitializationExit">Initialization / Exit</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#alutInit">alutInit</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutInitWithoutContext">alutInitWithoutContext</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutExit">alutExit</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#Loading">Sound Sample File Loading</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#alutCreateBufferFromFile">alutCreateBufferFromFile</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutCreateBufferFromFileImage"> alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutCreateBufferHelloWorld">alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutCreateBufferWaveform">alutCreateBufferWaveform</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutLoadMemoryFromFile">alutLoadMemoryFromFile</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage">alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld">alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutLoadMemoryWaveform">alutLoadMemoryWaveform</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutGetMIMETypes">alutGetMIMETypes</a></li>
<li><a href="#DeprecatedWAVLoaders">Deprecated WAV loaders</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#VersionChecking">Version Checking</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#alutGetMajorVersion">alutGetMajorVersion</a></li>
<li><a href="#alutGetMinorVersion">alutGetMinorVersion</a></li>
<li><a href="#VersioningMacros">Compile Time Version Checking</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#Sleeping">Sleeping</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#alutSleep">alutSleep</a></li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<h1><a name="ReleaseHistory"></a>Release History</h1>
<p>Discussion of the API is done via the <a
href="mailto:openal-devel@opensource.creative.com">openal-devel</a> mailing
list.</p>
<ul>
<li>2005-08-14: Version 1.0.0 by Steve Baker</li>
<li>2005-09-02: Version 1.0.1 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2005-09-10: Version 1.0.2 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2005-09-26: Version 1.0.3 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2005-09-28: Version 1.0.4 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2005-10-29: Version 1.0.5 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2005-11-19: Version 1.0.6 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2006-04-10: Version 1.0.7 by Sven Panne</li>
<li>2006-04-11: Version 1.1.0 by Sven Panne</li>
</ul>
<h1><a name="Introduction"></a>Introduction</h1>
<p>This is the <a href="http://www.openal.org/">OpenAL</a> Utility Toolkit
(ALUT) Reference Manual.</p>
<h2><a name="Licensing"></a>Licensing</h2>
<p>Some previous versions of ALUT were released under the BSD license -
others under LGPL. This version will be released exclusively under LGPL.</p>
<h2><a name="History"></a>Some History</h2>
<p>At the time of the first writing of this document (August 2005), ALUT was
a set of undocumented semi-portable functions that were mixed up in the
OpenAL library distribution. The intent had always been that ALUT would be a
cleanly separated library that would be portable between systems. It was
hoped that it would be well suited to producing succinct demo programs and
to help new developers to get started with OpenAL. It was to do this by
removing the annoying details of getting an audio application started -
allowing developers to learn OpenAL without distractions such as loading
sound samples from disk.</p>
<p>In order to move from this initial implementation to a clean API that
would meet the original goals of ALUT, it was necessary to break from the
past and make a clean start. The original version(s) were unnumbered - so we
will arbitarily label all previous versions as 0.x.x and start this cleaned
up version at release 1.0.0 to reflect changed API and implementations.</p>
<h2><a name="BackwardsCompatibility"></a>Backwards Compatibility with Version 0.x.x</h2>
<p>There are no formal guarantees of reverse compatibility with the various
versions of ALUT prior to 1.0.0. Having said that, some effort has been made
to at least allow these programs to continue to run if they are recompiled
against ALUT 1.0.0 or later.</p>
<p>The old Linux implementation of OpenAL poses a special compatibility
problem: ALUT 0.x.x was not a physically separate library on this platform,
it was actually part of libopenal itself. This is bad for at least two
reasons: It was handled differently on other platforms and much more
seriously it locked together OpenAL and ALUT releases. So a deliberate
decision was made to break binary compatibility in this respect and cleanly
split the libraries into an OpenAL (i.e. AL and ALC) part and an ALUT
one.</p>
<p>If you have a program which needs such an old, deprecated "combined
OpenAL/ALUT" and you are not able to recompile it for some reason
(e.g. it is available in binary format only), then temporarily setting the
environment variable <tt>LD_PRELOAD</tt> to the full path of your installed
ALUT dynamic library can help. If this really works depends on the platform,
but e.g. Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Solaris etc. support this mechanism. On Mac
OS X there is a similar environment variable called
<tt>DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES</tt>, but this has not been tested yet.</p>
<div class="example">
<h4>Example: Using a legacy program with the new ALUT</h4>
<p>Let's assume that your ALUT dynamic library is at the usual location
<tt>/usr/lib/libalut.so</tt> and you have an old program called
<tt>myOldProg</tt>, then the following commandline in Bash syntax does the
trick:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
LD_PRELOAD="/usr/lib/libalut.so" myOldProg
</pre>
<p>Note that setting <tt>LD_PRELOAD</tt> globally might not be a good idea,
because in that case the new ALUT would be loaded before <em>every</em>
dynamically linked executable.</p>
</div>
<h2><a name="OpenGLGLUT"></a>OpenGL, GLUT and using what you already know</h2>
<p>If you are already familiar with OpenGL and its utility toolkit GLUT,
then you should feel very familiar with ALUT. Wherever GLUT has 'GL', ALUT
has 'AL' and wherever GLUT has 'glut', ALUT has 'alut'. 'Window' is replaced
with 'Context' throughout the API.</p>
<div class="example">
<h4>Example: 'Hello, world' in ALUT</h4>
<p>Here is the traditional first program for any language or library, but
this time it is actually <em>saying</em> 'Hello, world!' instead of
printing it:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <AL/alut.h>
int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
ALuint helloBuffer, helloSource;
alutInit (&argc, argv);
helloBuffer = alutCreateBufferHelloWorld ();
alGenSources (1, &helloSource);
alSourcei (helloSource, AL_BUFFER, helloBuffer);
alSourcePlay (helloSource);
alutSleep (1);
alutExit ();
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</pre>
<p>Note that there error checks are missing in the program above to keep
it simple.</p>
</div>
<h3><a name="CompilingLinking"></a>Compiling and Linking</h3>
<p>All ALUT programs should contain:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
#include <AL/alut.h>
</pre>
<p>The ALUT header includes <tt><AL/al.h></tt> and
<tt><AL/alc.h></tt> for you so you don't need to include them again -
although it does not hurt to do so. ALUT reserves the
"<tt>ALUT_</tt>" prefix for preprocessor macros, so you should
never define such a macro in your own program. Furthermore, you should not
rely on any macro starting with "<tt>ALUT_</tt>" not mentioned in
this specification.</p>
<p>If you are using the freealut implementation of ALUT, which is available
via the <a href="http://www.openal.org/">OpenAL homepage</a>, you can find
out the necessary compilation flags by using one of the following
commands:</p>
<pre class="screen">
pkg-config --cflags freealut
freealut-config --cflags
</pre>
<p>To find out the necessary flags for linking, use one of the following
commands:</p>
<pre class="screen">
pkg-config --libs freealut
freealut-config --libs
</pre>
<p>On Windows, link with <tt>alut.dll</tt> and <tt>openal32.dll</tt>.</p>
<p>ALUT reserves the "<tt>alut</tt>" prefix for globally visible
functions and variables, so you should never define such a function or
variable in your own program. Furthermore, you should not rely on any such
function or variable not mentioned in this specification.</p>
<h1><a name="API"></a>The ALUT API</h1>
<h2><a name="ErrorHandling"></a>Error Handling</h2>
<p>ALUT's error handling and reporting is a little bit different from the
one used in OpenAL and OpenGL: All functions which can fail report
success/failure via a return value, where <tt>AL_FALSE</tt> /
<tt>AL_NONE</tt> / <tt>NULL</tt> mean failure. <tt>alutGetError</tt> can be
used to find out what exactly went wrong.</p>
<p>It is guaranteed that if a function fails, no data pointed to by pointer
arguments has been changed.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutGetError"></a>alutGetError</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetError</tt> - return and clear the current error state</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALenum alutGetError (void);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p>Any ALUT routine that fails will return <tt>AL_FALSE</tt> /
<tt>AL_NONE</tt> / <tt>NULL</tt> and set the global error state. If a
subsequent error occurs while there is still an error recorded internally,
the second error will simply be ignored. Calling <tt>alutGetError</tt> will
reset the error code to <tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_ERROR</tt>. Note that the error
state is <em>not</em> cleared by other successful ALUT calls.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetError</tt> returns the contents of the global error state,
which can be one of the following values:</p>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_ERROR</tt></dt>
<dd>No ALUT error found.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_ENUM</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT was given an invalid enumeration token.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT was given an invalid value.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>The operation is invalid in the current ALUT state.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to an ALUT function.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to an ALUT function.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OPEN_DEVICE</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error opening the ALC device.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CLOSE_DEVICE</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error closing the ALC device.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CREATE_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error creating an ALC context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_MAKE_CONTEXT_CURRENT</tt></dt>
<dd>Could not change the current ALC context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_DESTROY_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error destroying the ALC context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_GEN_BUFFERS</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error generating an AL buffer.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_BUFFER_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error passing buffer data to AL.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_IO_ERROR</tt></dt>
<dd>I/O error, consult <tt>errno</tt> for more details.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CORRUPT_OR_TRUNCATED_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>The sound data was corrupt or truncated.</dd>
</dl>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetError</tt> can be called in any ALUT state and will never
fail.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutGetErrorString"></a>alutGetErrorString</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetErrorString</tt> - return an error message string
given an error code</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
const char *alutGetErrorString (ALenum error);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetErrorString</tt> can be used to convert an error code into a
human-readable description. The precise text of these descriptions may vary
from implementation to implementation and should not be relied upon by the
application.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetErrorString</tt> returns a pointer to an immutable
zero-terminated string corresponding to the given error code.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetErrorString</tt> can be called in any ALUT state and
will never fail. An unknown error code is not considered an error
and a generic description will be returned in that case.</p>
<div class="example">
<h4>Example: Context Handling and Error Reporting</h4>
<p>A typical ALUT program might look like this:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
static void
reportError (void)
{
fprintf (stderr, "ALUT error: %s\n",
alutGetErrorString (alutGetError ()));
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
if (!alutInit (&argc, argv))
{
reportError ();
}
/* ...play audio for a while... */
if (!alutExit ())
{
reportError ();
}
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
</pre>
</div>
<h2><a name="InitializationExit"></a>Initialization / Exit</h2>
<p>ALUT starts in an <em>uninitialized</em> state. <tt>alutInit</tt> and
<tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> put ALUT into the <em>initialized</em>
state. Those functions must only be called when the state is
<em>uninitialized</em>. <tt>alutExit</tt> puts ALUT back from an
<em>initialized</em> state to an <em>uninitialized</em> one.</p>
<p>The following functions must only be called in an <em>initialized</em>
state and with a current context: <tt>alutExit</tt>,
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt>, <tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt>,
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt>, <tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt>,
<tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt>, <tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt>,
<tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt>. All these functions check for AL/ALC
errors on entry and immediately return <tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt>
or <tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt> if there was one. Note that as a
consequence of these checks the AL/ALC error states for the current
context/device are cleared after calling any of these functions.</p>
<p><tt>alutSleep</tt> can be called in every state.</p>
<p>The following functions never fail and can be called in any state:
<tt>alutGetError</tt>, <tt>alutGetErrorString</tt>,
<tt>alutGetMajorVersion</tt>, <tt>alutGetMinorVersion</tt>.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutInit"></a>alutInit</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutInit</tt> - initialize the ALUT library and create a default
current context</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALboolean alutInit (int *argcp, char **argv);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutInit</tt> initializes the ALUT internals and creates an OpenAL
context on the default device and makes it the current OpenAL context. If
you want something more complex than that (e.g. running on a non-default
device or opening multiple contexts on multiple devices), you can use <a
href="#alutInitWithoutContext"><tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt></a>
instead. <tt>alutInit</tt> examines the commandline arguments passed to it
and remove those it recognizes. It is acceptable to pass two <tt>NULL</tt>
pointers in settings where no useful information can be obtained from argc
and argv.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutInit</tt> returns <tt>AL_TRUE</tt> on success or
<tt>AL_FALSE</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd>One of the arguments was <tt>NULL</tt>, but not the other one.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has already been initialized.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OPEN_DEVICE</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error opening the default ALC device.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CREATE_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error creating an ALC context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_MAKE_CONTEXT_CURRENT</tt></dt>
<dd>Could not change the current ALC context.</dd>
</dl>
<div class="example">
<h4>Example: Handling command-line options</h4>
<p>If you pass <tt>alutInit</tt> the argc and argv from your main program,
it will examine your command-line options and use (and remove) those
options that it recognises:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
int
main (int argc, char **argv)
{
alutInit (&argc, argv);
...
}
</pre>
<p>Precisely which (if any) command-line options are accepted and what
they control is implementation and operating system dependent. Note that
some implementations will use argv[0] in debug and error messages - but
this is not guaranteed by the API because it is operating-system
dependent. On some OS's, <tt>alutInit</tt> may use initial settings from
other sources such as 'registry' data, '<tt>.alutrc</tt>' files or shell
variables. Please consult the README.xxx file for your OS if you need
further details.</p>
</div>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutInitWithoutContext"></a>alutInitWithoutContext</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> - initialize the ALUT library</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALboolean alutInitWithoutContext (int *argcp, char **argv);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> initializes the ALUT internals. It does
not create any OpenAL context or device, so this has to be done via the
usual ALC calls. <tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> examines the commandline
arguments passed to it and remove those it recognizes. It is acceptable to
pass two <tt>NULL</tt> pointers in settings where no useful information can
be obtained from argc and argv.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> returns <tt>AL_TRUE</tt> on success or
<tt>AL_FALSE</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd>One of the arguments was <tt>NULL</tt>, but not the other one.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has already been initialized.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutExit"></a>alutExit</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutExit</tt> - shutdown the ALUT library</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALboolean alutExit (void);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p>When the application has finished playing audio, it should shut down ALUT
using <tt>aluExit</tt>. This closes any OpenAL device/context that ALUT may
have created in <tt>alutInit</tt> (but not any that the application created
using ALC). After calling <tt>alutExit</tt>, you may subsequently call
<tt>alutInit</tt> or <tt>alutInitWithoutContext</tt> again. Note that under
well-behaved operating systems, it should be acceptable to simply exit from
your program without bothering to call <tt>alutExit</tt>, relying on the OS
to clean up after you. However, it is dangerous to rely on this behavior if
portable operation is expected.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutExit</tt> returns <tt>AL_TRUE</tt> on success or
<tt>AL_FALSE</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to <tt>alutExit</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to <tt>alutExit</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CLOSE_DEVICE</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error closing the ALC device created by
<tt>alutInit</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_MAKE_CONTEXT_CURRENT</tt></dt>
<dd>Could not release the current ALC context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_DESTROY_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error destroying the ALC context created by
<tt>alutInit</tt>.</dd>
</dl>
<h2><a name="Loading"></a>Sound Sample File Loading</h2>
<p>ALUT attempts to simplify the business of getting a simple application
running by providing loaders for a range of file formats. Rather than
enumerate a list of formats that will likely grow with time, the loaders are
generic and try to do their best either by using OpenAL extensions if
possible or by converting the sound data into standard OpenAL formats.</p>
<p>In order to simplify initial startup and to keep test program
distributions clean, ALUT provides built-in sounds, too, that do not require
disk I/O because they are built into the ALUT library. These functions may
be used to write compact ALUT test/example applications with no external
file dependancies whatsoever. When sending short application programs to
either the ALUT or OpenAL developers as a part of bug reporting, one should
endeavor to use these functions instead of loading ones own sound files.</p>
<p>There are eight (= 4 * 2) different loaders, corresponding to the sources
and destinations of the sound data. The possible sources are:</p>
<ul>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>FromFile</tt> suffix get their sound data from
a named file.</li>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>FromFileImage</tt> suffix get their data from a
continuous memory region. This region can be re-used or destroyed
afterwards.</li>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>HelloWorld</tt> suffix get their fixed data
internally.</li>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>Waveform</tt> suffix get their data via
internal waveform calculation.</li>
</ul>
<p>The possible destinations are:</p>
<ul>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>alutCreateBuffer</tt> prefix create a new
OpenAL buffer and put the sound data into it. If possible, OpenAL
extensions are used to avoid conversions at the ALUT level and enable the
use of possible hardware/driveer features for some sound
formats. Therefore, these are the preferred loaders.</li>
<li>The loaders with a <tt>alutLoadMemory</tt> prefix allocate a new
memory region with <tt>malloc</tt> and put the sound data into it,
optionally passing back more information about the sound. The sound data
is guaranteed to be in one of the four standard OpenAL formats (8/16bit
monon/stereo) aftwerwards. Because no OpenAL extensions can be used here,
these loaders might handle fewer sound formats than the
<tt>alutCreateBuffer</tt> ones.</li>
</ul>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutCreateBufferFromFile"></a>alutCreateBufferFromFile</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt> - load a sound file into an OpenAL
buffer</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALuint alutCreateBufferFromFile (const char *filename);
</pre>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt> tries to guess the sound data format by
looking at the filename and/or the file contents and loads the sound data
into an OpenAL buffer.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt> returns a handle to an
OpenAL buffer containing the loaded sound. It returns <tt>AL_NONE</tt> on
failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_GEN_BUFFERS</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error generating an AL buffer.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_BUFFER_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error passing buffer data to AL.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_IO_ERROR</tt></dt>
<dd>I/O error, consult <tt>errno</tt> for more details.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CORRUPT_OR_TRUNCATED_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>The sound data was corrupt or truncated.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutCreateBufferFromFileImage"></a>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt> - load in-memory sound data into
an OpenAL buffer</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALuint alutCreateBufferFromFileImage (const ALvoid *data, ALsizei length);
</pre>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt> tries to guess the sound data
format by looking at the contents of the memory region given as parameters
and loads the sound data into an OpenAL buffer.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt> returns a handle to an
OpenAL buffer containing the loaded sound. It returns <tt>AL_NONE</tt> on
failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_GEN_BUFFERS</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error generating an AL buffer.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_BUFFER_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error passing buffer data to AL.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CORRUPT_OR_TRUNCATED_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>The sound data was corrupt or truncated.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutCreateBufferHelloWorld"></a>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt> - create a buffer with a 'Hello, world!' sound</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALuint alutCreateBufferHelloWorld (void);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt> returns a handle to an OpenAL buffer
containing the sound of someone saying 'Hello, world!'.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt> returns a handle to an
OpenAL buffer containing a 'Hello, world!' sound. It returns
<tt>AL_NONE</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferHelloWorld</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_GEN_BUFFERS</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error generating an AL buffer.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_BUFFER_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error passing buffer data to AL.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutCreateBufferWaveform"></a>alutCreateBufferWaveform</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt> - create a buffer with a synthesized waveform sound</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALuint alutCreateBufferWaveform (ALenum waveshape,
ALfloat frequency,
ALfloat phase,
ALfloat duration);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt> returns a handle to an OpenAL buffer
containing a snippet of audio with the specified waveshape at the specified
frequency (in Hertz), phase (in degrees: -180 to +180) and duration (in
seconds). Allowed waveforms are:</p>
<ul>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SINE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SQUARE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SAWTOOTH</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_WHITENOISE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_IMPULSE</tt></li>
</ul>
<p>The duration will always be rounded up to an exact number of cycles of
the sound to avoid a click if you loop the sample. The frequency and phase
arguments are ignored for <tt>ALUT_WHITENOISE</tt>.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt> returns a handle to an
OpenAL buffer containing the synthesized waveform. It returns
<tt>AL_NONE</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_ENUM</tt></dt>
<dd>An invalid waveform token was given to
<tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd>The frequency was not positive or the duration was negative.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutCreateBufferWaveform</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_GEN_BUFFERS</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error generating an AL buffer.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_BUFFER_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>There was an error passing buffer data to AL.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutLoadMemoryFromFile"></a>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt> - load a sound file into OpenAL-like
data</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALvoid *alutLoadMemoryFromFile (const char *filename,
ALenum *format,
ALsizei *size,
ALfloat *frequency);
</pre>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt> tries to guess the sound data format by
looking at the filename and/or the file contents and loads the sound data
into a newly <tt>malloc</tt>ed buffer, possibly converting it in the
process. The format is guaranteed to be a standard OpenAL format
afterwards.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt> returns a pointer to a newly
allocated memory area containing the sound data, which can be <tt>free</tt>d
if not needed anymore. It returns <tt>NULL</tt> on failure. If any of the
format, size or frequency parameters are non-<tt>NULL</tt>, the respective
information about the sound will be passed back.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_IO_ERROR</tt></dt>
<dd>I/O error, consult <tt>errno</tt> for more details.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CORRUPT_OR_TRUNCATED_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>The sound data was corrupt or truncated.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage"></a>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt> - convert in-memory sound data into
OpenAL-like data</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALvoid *alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage (const ALvoid *data,
ALsizei length,
ALenum *format,
ALsizei *size,
ALfloat *frequency);
</pre>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt> tries to guess the sound data format
by looking at the contents of the memory region given as the first two
arguments and loads the sound data into a newly <tt>malloc</tt>ed buffer,
possibly converting it in the process. The format is guaranteed to be a
standard OpenAL format afterwards.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt> returns a pointer to a
newly allocated memory area containing the sound data, which can be
<tt>free</tt>d if not needed anymore. It returns <tt>NULL</tt> on
failure. If any of the format, size or frequency parameters are
non-<tt>NULL</tt>, the respective information about the sound will be passed
back.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt></dt>
<dd>Unsupported mode within an otherwise usable file type.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_CORRUPT_OR_TRUNCATED_DATA</tt></dt>
<dd>The sound data was corrupt or truncated.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld"></a>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt> - load a 'Hello, world!' sound into
OpenAL-like data</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALvoid *alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld (ALenum *format,
ALsizei *size,
ALfloat *frequency);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt> loads the sound of someone saying
'Hello, world!' into a newly <tt>malloc</tt>ed buffer. The sound data is
guaranteed to be in a standard OpenAL format, with a sample frequency chosen
by the ALUT implementation.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt> returns a pointer to a
newly allocated memory area containing the sound data, which can be
<tt>free</tt>d if not needed anymore. It returns <tt>NULL</tt> on
failure. If any of the format, size or frequency parameters are
non-<tt>NULL</tt>, the respective information about the sound will be passed
back.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt>.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutLoadMemoryWaveform"></a>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt> - load a synthesized waveform sound into
OpenAL-like data</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALvoid *alutLoadMemoryWaveform (ALenum waveshape,
ALfloat frequency,
ALfloat phase,
ALfloat duration,
ALenum *format,
ALsizei *size,
ALfloat *sampleFrequency);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt> loads a snippet of audio with the
specified waveshape at the specified frequency (in Hertz), phase (in
degrees: -180 to +180) and duration (in seconds) into a newly
<tt>malloc</tt>ed buffer. The sound data is guaranteed to be in a standard
OpenAL format, with a sample frequency chosen by the ALUT
implementation. Allowed waveforms are:</p>
<ul>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SINE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SQUARE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_SAWTOOTH</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_WHITENOISE</tt></li>
<li><tt>ALUT_WAVEFORM_IMPULSE</tt></li>
</ul>
<p>The duration will always be rounded up to an exact number of cycles of
the sound to avoid a click if you loop the sample. The frequency and phase
arguments are ignored for <tt>ALUT_WHITENOISE</tt>.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt> returns a pointer to a newly
allocated memory area containing the sound data, which can be <tt>free</tt>d
if not needed anymore. It returns <tt>NULL</tt> on failure. If any of the
format, size or sample frequency parameters are non-<tt>NULL</tt>, the
respective information about the sound will be passed back.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_OUT_OF_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT ran out of memory.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_ENUM</tt></dt>
<dd>An invalid waveform token was given to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd>The frequency was not positive or the duration was negative.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt>.</dd>
</dl>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutGetMIMETypes"></a>alutGetMIMETypes</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt> - get list support supported audio MIME types</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
const char *alutGetMIMETypes (ALenum loader);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt> returns a comma-separated list of
supported MIME types for the given loader type, e.g. something like
"<tt>audio/basic,audio/mpeg,audio/x-wav</tt>". Allowed loader
types are:</p>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_LOADER_BUFFER</tt></dt>
<dd>For the loaders returning sound data in an OpenAL buffer,
e.g. <tt>alutCreateBufferFromFile</tt> and
<tt>alutCreateBufferFromFileImage</tt></dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_LOADER_MEMORY</tt></dt>
<dd>For the loaders returning sound data in a newly allocated memory
region, e.g. <tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFile</tt> and
<tt>alutLoadMemoryFromFileImage</tt></dd>
</dl>
<p>It is possible that <tt>ALUT_LOADER_MEMORY</tt> loaders will be unable to
support some file types that <tt>ALUT_LOADER_BUFFER</tt> loaders can support
(although the reverse is never the case). Furthermore, it is possible that
for some file types (notably audio/x-wav) the support may be only for a few
sub-formats. For example, an implementation may advertise that audio/x-wav
is supported when in fact it only supports uncompressed (i.e. PCM) WAV files
and not any of the compressed subformats. In this event, the various ALUT
loaders may return an error and set
<tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_SUBTYPE</tt> rather than
<tt>ALUT_ERROR_UNSUPPORTED_FILE_TYPE</tt> which would indicate that no files
of this type are allowed.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p>On success, <tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt> returns a zero-terminated string
which contains a comma-separated list of supported MIME types. It returns
<tt>NULL</tt> on failure.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_ENUM</tt></dt>
<dd><tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt> was given an invalid loader token.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_OPERATION</tt></dt>
<dd>ALUT has not been initialised.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_NO_CURRENT_CONTEXT</tt></dt>
<dd>There is no current AL context.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_AL_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an AL error on entry to
<tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt>.</dd>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_ALC_ERROR_ON_ENTRY</tt></dt>
<dd>There was already an ALC error on entry to
<tt>alutGetMIMETypes</tt>.</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="DeprecatedWAVLoaders"></a>Deprecated WAV loaders</h3>
<p>For backwards-compatibility with ALUT 0.x.x, ALUT still offers the three
deprecated functions below. Note that on MacOS 0.x.x version, the
'<tt>loop</tt>' parameter is omitted from both loader functions.</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
void alutLoadWAVFile (ALbyte *filename,
ALenum *format,
void **data,
ALsizei *size,
ALsizei *frequency,
ALboolean *loop);
void alutLoadWAVMemory (ALbyte *buffer,
ALenum *format,
void **data,
ALsizei *size,
ALsizei *frequency,
ALboolean *loop);
void alutUnloadWAV (ALenum format ALvoid *data, ALsizei size, ALsizei frequency);
</pre>
<h2><a name="VersionChecking"></a>Version Checking</h2>
<p>ALUT version numbers consist of a major version number, a minor version
number, and a patchlevel. The former two numbers will match the major/minor
version number of the corresponding ALUT specification document and can be
accessed at compile time as well as runtime. The patchlevel is not
programmatically available and it is incremented only when fixing bugs
without any API changes.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutGetMajorVersion"></a>alutGetMajorVersion</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMajorVersion</tt> - return the major ALUT version number</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALint alutGetMajorVersion (void);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMajorVersion</tt> returns the major version number of the ALUT
in use, which will match the major version number of the corresponding ALUT
specification document.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMajorVersion</tt> returns the major version number of the ALUT
in use.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMajorVersion</tt> can be called in any ALUT state and will
never fail.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutGetMinorVersion"></a>alutGetMinorVersion</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMinorVersion</tt> - return the minor ALUT version number</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALint alutGetMinorVersion (void);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMinorVersion</tt> returns the minor version number of the ALUT
in use, which will match the minor version number of the corresponding ALUT
specification document.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMinorVersion</tt> returns the minor version number of the ALUT
in use.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<p><tt>alutGetMinorVersion</tt> can be called in any ALUT state and will
never fail.</p>
<h3><a name="VersioningMacros"></a>Compile Time Version Checking</h3>
<pre class="programlisting">
#define ALUT_API_MAJOR_VERSION 1
#define ALUT_API_MINOR_VERSION 1
</pre>
<p>Version 1.0.0 introduced the above preprocessor symbols, whose values
will be incremented appropriately in future revisions of ALUT. In version
1.1.0, <tt>alutLoadMemoryHelloWorld</tt> and <tt>alutLoadMemoryWaveform</tt>
have been added to the ALUT API.</p>
<div class="example">
<h4>Example: Version consistency check</h4>
<p>Applications can verify at runtime that they have been compiled and
linked with the matching header file and library file as follows:</p>
<pre class="programlisting">
#ifdef ALUT_API_MAJOR_VERSION
if (alutGetMajorVersion () != ALUT_API_MAJOR_VERSION ||
alutGetMinorVersion () != ALUT_API_MINOR_VERSION)
/* Oh-oh! The ALUT header and the ALUT library are different revisions... */
#else
/* Oh-oh! We're linking against an ALUT 0.x.x header file... */
#endif
</pre>
</div>
<h2><a name="Sleeping"></a>Sleeping</h2>
<p>Having a general utility function like the following in an audio-related
toolkit might seem strange at first, but sleeping is a common task in a lot
of audio demos and it can't be done portably without cluttering the source
code with <tt>#ifdefs</tt>.</p>
<h3 class="manpage"><a name="alutSleep"></a>alutSleep</h3>
<h4>Name</h4>
<p><tt>alutSleep</tt> - sleep for a given number of seconds</p>
<h4>Synopsis</h4>
<pre class="programlisting">
ALboolean alutSleep (ALfloat duration);
</pre>
<h4>Description</h4>
<p><tt>alutSleep</tt> will delay the execution of the current thread for at
least the given amount of seconds. It will only return earlier if a signal
has been delivered to the thread, but this does not count as an error. Note
that sleeping for zero seconds will give other runnable threads a chance to
run.</p>
<h4>Return Value</h4>
<p><tt>alutSleep</tt> returns <tt>AL_TRUE</tt> on success or
<tt>AL_FALSE</tt> on failure. Note that current implementations will always
succeed if the duration is non-negative, but this might change in the
future.</p>
<h4>Errors</h4>
<dl>
<dt><tt>ALUT_ERROR_INVALID_VALUE</tt></dt>
<dd><tt>alutSleep</tt> was given a negative duration.</dd>
</dl>
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