http://bugs.winehq.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28040
--- Comment #5 from Andrew Eikum aeikum@codeweavers.com 2011-08-10 14:35:55 CDT --- (In reply to comment #4)
Without fallback, open fails even when PA is not active. This is not acceptable.
I would say your sound API lying to the user is unacceptable. If the device is not backed by pulse, then why does it claim to be backed by pulse? Although I guess I should know better than to expect sane behavior from audio APIs by now.
I guess I'm okay with taking Option 1 here. I guess I'll add a note to the Sound wiki page explaining why users have their sound drop after a few minutes, and that they must upgrade their sound packages to fix it.
I'd prefer not to use the _ONCE-style functionality. It keeps the code a little cleaner, and I have no objection to being very loud about this failure (i.e. a pulse-backed device that doesn't allow handle_underrun).