.. based on some tasks I found that caused stuttering:
# Test SD and printing
while True: os.listdir('.')
# Test bulk I/O
while True: len(open('somefile.wav', 'rb').read())
Each of these tasks *WAS* worse and I am improving them in a separate
PR by adding RUN_BACKGROUND_TASKS to them.
This enables the highest level of debug symbols, and all optimizations
except lto that do NOT interfere with debugging, in the view of the gcc
maintainers.
Testing performed: I used a Particle Xenon with a HDA1334 I2S DAC.
I played a variety of mono 16-bit samples at 11025 and 22050Hz nominal
bit rates. With this setup, all the 11025Hz samples sound good.
I tested play, pause, and loop functionality.
During some runs with 22050Hz samples, there were glitches. However,
these may have only occurred during runs where I had set breakpoints
and watchpoints in gdb.
I also tested with a MAX98357A I2S amplifier. On this device, everything
sounded "scratchy". I was powering it from 5V and the 5V rail seemed
steady, so I don't have an explanation for this. However, I haven't
tried it with a SAMD board.
So far, this supports only 16kHz and 16-bit samples with a fixed gain.
This is enough to support the basic functionality of e.g., sensing
ambient audio levels.
The original formulation was because I saw the need to avoid a transition
from playing to stopped exactly when a resume was taking place. However,
@tannewt was concerned about this pause causing trouble, because it could
be relatively lengthy (several ms even in a typical case).
After reflection, I've convinced myself that updating the registers
in this order in resume avoids a window where a "stopped" event can
be missed as long as the shortcut is updated first.
Testing re-performed: pause/resume testing of looped RawSample and
WaveFile audio sources.
