The aRts Handbook
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# Glossary

ALSA

  Advanced Linux® Sound Architecture; a Linux® sound card driver; not currently included with the standard kernel source code.

aRts

  Analog Real-Time Synthesizer; the name of the multimedia architecture/library/toolkit used by the KDE project (note capitalization)

BSD

  Berkeley Software Distribution; here refers to any of several free UNIX®-compatible operating systems derived from BSD UNIX®.

CORBA

  Common Object Request Broker Architecture; a standard for implementing object-oriented remote execution.

CVS

  Concurrent Versions System; a software configuration management system used by many software projects including KDE and aRts.

FFT

  Fast Fourier Transform; an algorithm for converting data from the time to frequency domain; often used in signal processing.

Full Duplex

  The ability of a sound card to simultaneously record and play audio.

GPL

  GNU General Public License; a software license created by the Free Software Foundation defining the terms for releasing free software.

GUI

  Graphical User Interface

IDL

  Interface Definition Language; a programming language independent format for specifying interfaces (methods and data).

KDE

  K Desktop Environment; a project to develop a free graphical desktop environment for UNIX® compatible systems.

LGPL

  GNU Lesser General Public License; a software license created by the Free Software Foundation defining the terms for releasing free software; less restrictive than the GPL and often used for software libraries.

MCOP

  Multimedia COmmunication Protocol; the protocol used for communication between aRts software modules; similar to CORBA but simpler and optimized for multimedia.

MIDI

  Musical Instrument Digital Interface; a standard protocol for communication between electronic musical instruments; often also used to refer to a file format for storing MIDI commands.

OSS

  Open Sound System; the sound drivers included with the Linux® kernel (sometimes called OSS/Free) or a commercial version sold by 4Front Technologies.

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Introduction to MIDI |  | Installing aRts