After some further examination (see below), I decided to use the OpenBSD
support in plib.  But that raised a further question: What is the history
of /dev/audio?

The comments in plib for OpenBSD support _seem_ to indicate that
/dev/audio is based on a Sun design.  Did NetBSD and OpenBSD independantly
re-develop the code for /dev/audio, from a common parent?  Or did one
borrow code directly from the other?  Or was /dev/audio an original NetBSD
design, which predated the NetBSD/OpenBSD split (and therefore effectively
native to both systems)---and therefore I misunderstood (or the comments
were misleading) re. Sun's involvement in the design?


>> I see that there is a /dev/sound on my system (dated from around June 4).
 [...]
>> link.  There is no man page on it.
>
>Try 'man audio', that's the man page for /dev/sound as well.

Ah, a missing man page link, then?


>> So, should I be safe in pointing plib's sound to /dev/sound?  Are there
>> any caveats or shortfalls that I should be aware of?  Where can I find man
>> pages on ossaudio?  (The ossaudio man page itself is very brief.)
>
>If you want docs for OSS then try their web site, www.4front-tech.com.

Partly; I was more concerned with whether there would be any problems,
since OSS-support does not seem to be the ``normal'' sound support for
NetBSD.

On looking a little closer, I see that plib has already been ported to
OpenBSD, and they appear to also use a /dev/audio.  I assume that the
interface is the same,  On that assumption, I get a clean build of plib,
and the example sound programs seem to perform correctly.  (Well, I also
had to add /usr/X11/{include,lib} to the respective include- and
library-path specifications in order to compile & link.)


  "I probably don't know what I'm talking about." --rauch@eecs.ukans.edu