diff --git a/markdown/frequently-asked-questions/dependencies.md b/markdown/frequently-asked-questions/dependencies.md index 45934eb660..7bda966e39 100644 --- a/markdown/frequently-asked-questions/dependencies.md +++ b/markdown/frequently-asked-questions/dependencies.md @@ -17,34 +17,48 @@ of the other dependencies are optional. So, in closing, let's rephrase the question to “Why are you giving me so many choices and such a rich environment ?” -## Is GStreamer X independent ? +## Is GStreamer X11 independent? Can it be used headless? -Yes, we have no hard X dependency in any of our modules. There -are many GStreamer applications that run fine without any need for X, +Yes, we have no hard dependency on X11 or any other windowing system in +any of our modules. There are many GStreamer applications that run fine +without any need for display servers or windowing systems, for example streaming servers, transcoding applications, or audio applications that don't output any video. Other applications output video to a framebuffer, custom-made hardware sinks, or via wayland. -## What is GStreamer's position on efforts such as LADSPA ? +## What is GStreamer's position on efforts such as LADSPA or LV2? -GStreamer actively supports such efforts, and in the case of -[LADSPA](http://www.ladspa.org/), we already have a wrapper plugin. This -wrapper plug-in detects the LADSPA plugins present on your system at run -time. +GStreamer actively supports such efforts, and in the case of [LADSPA][ladspa] +or [LV2][lv2] we already have wrapper plugins. These wrapper plug-ins detect +the LADSPA/LV2 plugins present on your system at run time and make them +available as GStreamer elements. + +[ladspa]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LADSPA +[lv2]: http://lv2plug.in/ ## Does GStreamer support MIDI ? -Not yet. The GStreamer architecture should be able to support the -needs of MIDI applications very well however. If you are a developer -interested in adding MIDI support to GStreamer we are very interested in -getting in touch with you. +There is some rudimentary MIDI support in GStreamer, but it's not complete yet. -MIDI playback is provided by plugins such as wildmidi and timidity. +The GStreamer architecture should be able to support the needs of MIDI +applications very well, a full implementation is still missing, however. +If you are a developer interested in adding MIDI support to GStreamer please +get in touch, we would definitely be interested in that. + +As for what exists today: the [`alsamidisrc`][alsamidisrc] element can be used +to fetch ALSA MIDI sequencer events and makes them available to elements that +understand the `audio/x-midi-events` format. + +MIDI playback is provided by plugins such as `midiparse`, `fluiddec`, +`wildmidi` and `timidity`. + +[alsamidisrc]: https://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/data/doc/gstreamer/head/gst-plugins-base-plugins/html/gst-plugins-base-plugins-alsamidisrc.html ## Does GStreamer depend on GNOME or GTK+ ? -No. But many of the applications developed for GStreamer do, -including some of our sample applications. Other applications use the Qt -toolkit, or are written for Mac OS/X or Windows. We aim to provide API -that is toolkit agnostic and can be used from any toolkit, desktop -environment or operating system. +No, it's just that many of the applications developed for GStreamer happen to +be GNOME or GTK+ applications, including some of our sample applications. There +are just as many applications that use the Qt toolkit or that are written for +Mac OS/X, Windows, Android or iOS. We aim to provide an API that is toolkit +agnostic, so that GStreamer can be used from any toolkit, desktop environment +or operating system.