[Ardour-Users] High number of crashes

[jonetsu at teksavvy.com]

(This time around with actual contents !)

On Mon, 24 Aug 2015 22:48:25 -0400
Paul Davis <paul at linuxaudiosystems.com> wrote:

> Speaking frankly, as a host developer, the entire concept of plugins
> is really a very disturbing one. Loading arbitrary random bits of
> executable code into a large, complex program as part of an extension
> mechanism is an idea that only the proprietary software development
> world could dream up.
> 
> It is a necessary evil that we live with, but users need to be clear
> that the basic idea is really totally broken. In a better world, all
> plugin source code would be accessible and inspectable, just as the
> code for ardour (and qtractor, and non) is

But it is.  At least the plug/ins I use, Calf and more recently Gx.  It
might sound corny, but a plug-in standard with elaborated tests that
have to be passed to get certified would be an incentive to have better
code.  It would at least assure that the plug-ins have passed extensive
tests.  This would mean a testing framework that factors in real-time
concerns and perhaps imposing another mode of operation for the
plug-ins, a testing mode, in which real-time concerns are not
important.  So that data access et al. can be thoroughly tested.

What you described amounts to a weak point in the chain.  You can have
a pretty good software such as Ardour be mined be a two-cents plug-in
whose developer(s) did not care.  This should not happen.  People
should use certified plug-ins.  

How does this sound ? (no pun :)

Cheers.