cleanup comparing jack

- fix heading hirarchy
- line length and paragraphs
- fix mailing list name

Author: mseeber

faq/comparing_jack.md

@@ -5,79 +5,89 @@ title: "How does JACK compare to ..."
 
 # How does JACK compare to ...
 
-## How does JACK compare to...?
+Please mail the jack-devel mailing list if you have any concerns about
+the answers to these questions. Also, no disrespect to any effort is
+intended, only a recognition of different goals and design principles.
 
-Please mail the jackit-devel mailing list if you have any concerns about the
-answers to these questions. Also, no disrespect to any effort is intended,
-only a recognition of different goals and design principles.
-
-### Other Linux-centered systems
+## Other Linux-centered systems
 
 * ALSA: both a HAL and a user-space library for audio under Linux.
-  ALSA is used to provide the default audio i/o driver for JACK.
-  ALSA is a very powerful audio API, but it does not provide a
-  callback-based API or offer any solutions for inter-application
-  communication, though it has been discussed and is theoretically possible. 
+  ALSA is used to provide the default audio i/o driver for JACK.  ALSA
+  is a very powerful audio API, but it does not provide a callback-based
+  API or offer any solutions for inter-application communication, though
+  it has been discussed and is theoretically possible.
+
 * aRts, a streaming media architecture:
   aRts was not designed from the ground up with low-latency in mind.
-  Not a fault, but a design decision. A jack output element could be written
-  for aRts, though, as far as I can tell.
-  Note: aRts is not really used anymore by any Linux systems. 
+  Not a fault, but a design decision. A jack output element could be
+  written for aRts, though, as far as I can tell.  Note: aRts is not
+  really used anymore by any Linux systems.
+
 * GStreamer, another streaming media architecture:
   GStreamer is designed for in-process construction of media pipelines,
   and is not used to link applications.
-  JACK elements for GStreamer are under available. 
+  JACK elements for GStreamer are under available.
+
 * LADSPA, LV2: LADSPA is an internal plugin API for DSP routines,
-  not a way of linking external applications together. 
-* Phonon 
-* Canberra 
+  not a way of linking external applications together.
 
-### Cross-platform systems
+* Phonon
 
-  * PortAudio:
+* Canberra
+
+## Cross-platform systems
+
+* PortAudio:
   a "cross platform, open-source, audio I/O library" offering both
-  callback- and blocking I/O-based APIs.
-  PortAudio backends exist for various Windows, Mac, and Unix HALs.
-  It is mainly focused on hardware I/O rather than a general concept of
-  ports and connections. The callback-style API used by both projects
-  makes it relatively easy to port between the two (no pun intended),
-  and there is a JACK backend for PortAudio so porting is not always necessary. 
-  * SDL: 
-  * SFML: 
-  * OpenAL: 
-
-### MacOS- and/or Windows-centered systems
+  callback- and blocking I/O-based APIs.  PortAudio backends exist for
+  various Windows, Mac, and Unix HALs.  It is mainly focused on hardware
+  I/O rather than a general concept of ports and connections. The
+  callback-style API used by both projects makes it relatively easy to
+  port between the two (no pun intended), and there is a JACK backend
+  for PortAudio so porting is not always necessary.
+
+* SDL:
+
+* SFML:
+
+* OpenAL:
+
+## MacOS- and/or Windows-centered systems
 
 * CoreAudio, the Mac OS X audio API:
-  Very similar to JACK in some the sense of being centered on
-  a synchronous-execution-via-callback API, but does not include
+  Very similar to JACK in some the sense of being centered on a
+  synchronous-execution-via-callback API, but does not include
   inter-application audio routing. CoreAudio also includes a
-  hardware-level abstraction layer, whereas JACK uses higher-level drivers
-  for that purpose. The first JACK driver was based on ALSA,
-  but others are available for the OSS and PortAudio interfaces. 
+  hardware-level abstraction layer, whereas JACK uses higher-level
+  drivers for that purpose. The first JACK driver was based on ALSA, but
+  others are available for the OSS and PortAudio interfaces.
+
 * ASIO:
-  a HAL for both Windows and MacOS that replaces the native device driver model
-  with something much cleaner. It supports hardware-level latencies,
-  but it does not connect applications to each other.
-  Also, it is subject to license restrictions, and does not exist for Linux
-  (though it would not be impossible to implement it on top of ALSA). 
+  a HAL for both Windows and MacOS that replaces the native device
+  driver model with something much cleaner. It supports hardware-level
+  latencies, but it does not connect applications to each other.  Also,
+  it is subject to license restrictions, and does not exist for Linux
+  (though it would not be impossible to implement it on top of ALSA).
+
 * ReWire, an inter-app communications API for Windows and MacOS
-  from PropellerHeads and Steinberg, ReWire is similar in that it provides
-  inter-application audio routing, but does not allow for
-  fully independent processes, and has silly restrictions
-  ("up to 64 channels", etc).
-  JACK also comes without silly license restrictions. 
+  from PropellerHeads and Steinberg, ReWire is similar in that it
+  provides inter-application audio routing, but does not allow for fully
+  independent processes, and has silly restrictions ("up to 64
+  channels", etc).  JACK also comes without silly license restrictions.
+
 * VST, AudioUnits, DirectX, MAS, RTAS:
   these are all Windows/MacOS audio plugin APIs. None of them permit
-  inter-application data sharing. Some plugin hosts can make this possible
-  by using some other system such as ReWire. These APIs also require that
-  the callback you write to process/generate data be executed
-  in the context of the plugin host;
-  JACK allows your callback to be executed within the context
-  of your own application (if you wish to).
+  inter-application data sharing. Some plugin hosts can make this
+  possible by using some other system such as ReWire. These APIs also
+  require that the callback you write to process/generate data be
+  executed in the context of the plugin host; JACK allows your callback
+  to be executed within the context of your own application (if you wish
+  to).
+
 * Virtual Audio Cable, VAC (Windows only):
   Creates a set of virtual audio devices named "Virtual Cables", each
-  consisting of a pair of the waveform input/output devices. Applications
-  can send audio stream to an output side of a cable, and any other 
-  application can receive this stream from an input side.  ASIO-compatible.
+  consisting of a pair of the waveform input/output devices.
+  Applications can send audio stream to an output side of a cable, and
+  any other application can receive this stream from an input side.
+  ASIO-compatible.