volume: improve documentation

Changes:
 - Mention that source outputs have volume too.
 - Don't claim that most distributions have flat volumes enabled.
 - Volumes use a cubic scale, not logarithmic.
 - Reword the warning about using the conversion functions on hardware
   volumes. The old wording gave the incorrect impression that hardware
   volumes could never be converted to dB or linear scale.

diff --git a/src/pulse/volume.h b/src/pulse/volume.h
index 8cf4fa4..03497f7 100644 (file)
--- a/src/pulse/volume.h
+++ b/src/pulse/volume.h
@@ -34,9 +34,9 @@
  *
  * \section overv_sec Overview
  *
- * Sinks, sources, sink inputs and samples can all have their own volumes.
- * To deal with these, The PulseAudio library contains a number of functions
- * that ease handling.
+ * Sinks, sources, sink inputs, source outputs and samples can all have their
+ * own volumes. To deal with these, The PulseAudio library contains a number of
+ * functions that ease handling.
  *
  * The basic volume type in PulseAudio is the \ref pa_volume_t type. Most of
  * the time, applications will use the aggregated pa_cvolume structure that
@@ -47,13 +47,12 @@
  *
  * There is no single well-defined meaning attached to the 100% volume for a
  * sink input. In fact, it depends on the server configuration. With flat
- * volumes enabled (the default in most Linux distributions), it means the
- * maximum volume that the sound hardware is capable of, which is usually so
- * high that you absolutely must not set sink input volume to 100% unless the
- * the user explicitly requests that (note that usually you shouldn't set the
- * volume anyway if the user doesn't explicitly request it, instead, let
- * PulseAudio decide the volume for the sink input). With flat volumes disabled
- * (the default in Ubuntu), the sink input volume is relative to the sink
+ * volumes enabled, it means the maximum volume that the sound hardware is
+ * capable of, which is usually so high that you absolutely must not set sink
+ * input volume to 100% unless the the user explicitly requests that (note that
+ * usually you shouldn't set the volume anyway if the user doesn't explicitly
+ * request it, instead, let PulseAudio decide the volume for the sink input).
+ * With flat volumes disabled the sink input volume is relative to the sink
  * volume, so 100% sink input volume means that the sink input is played at the
  * current sink volume level. In this case 100% is often a good default volume
  * for a sink input, although you still should let PulseAudio decide the
@@ -62,9 +61,9 @@
  *
  * \section calc_sec Calculations
  *
- * The volumes in PulseAudio are logarithmic in nature and applications
- * shouldn't perform calculations with them directly. Instead, they should
- * be converted to and from either dB or a linear scale:
+ * The volumes in PulseAudio are cubic in nature and applications shouldn't
+ * perform calculations with them directly. Instead, they should be converted
+ * to and from either dB or a linear scale:
  *
  * \li dB - pa_sw_volume_from_dB() / pa_sw_volume_to_dB()
  * \li Linear - pa_sw_volume_from_linear() / pa_sw_volume_to_linear()
@@ -72,14 +71,12 @@
  * For simple multiplication, pa_sw_volume_multiply() and
  * pa_sw_cvolume_multiply() can be used.
  *
- * Calculations can only be reliably performed on software volumes
- * as it is commonly unknown what scale hardware volumes relate to.
- *
- * The functions described above are only valid when used with
- * software volumes. Hence it is usually a better idea to treat all
- * volume values as opaque with a range from PA_VOLUME_MUTED (0%) to
- * PA_VOLUME_NORM (100%) and to refrain from any calculations with
- * them.
+ * It's often unknown what scale hardware volumes relate to. Don't use the
+ * above functions on sink and source volumes, unless the sink or source in
+ * question has the PA_SINK_DECIBEL_VOLUME or PA_SOURCE_DECIBEL_VOLUME flag
+ * set. The conversion functions are rarely needed anyway, most of the time
+ * it's sufficient to treat all volumes as opaque with a range from
+ * PA_VOLUME_MUTED (0%) to PA_VOLUME_NORM (100%).
  *
  * \section conv_sec Convenience Functions
  *