How can I play compressed sound files in C# in a portable way?

Question

Is there a portable, not patent-restricted way to play compressed sound files in C# / .Net? I want to play short \"jingle\" sounds on various events occuring in the program.

Answer 1

Calling something which is located in 'System.Diagnostics' to play a sound looks like a pretty bad idea to me. Here is what that function is meant for:

    //
    // Summary:
    //     Starts a process resource by specifying the name of a document or application
    //     file and associates the resource with a new System.Diagnostics.Process component.
    //
    // Parameters:
    //   fileName:
    //     The name of a document or application file to run in the process.
    //
    // Returns:
    //     A new System.Diagnostics.Process component that is associated with the process
    //     resource, or null, if no process resource is started (for example, if an
    //     existing process is reused).
    //
    // Exceptions:
    //   System.ComponentModel.Win32Exception:
    //     There was an error in opening the associated file.
    //
    //   System.ObjectDisposedException:
    //     The process object has already been disposed.
    //
    //   System.IO.FileNotFoundException:
    //     The PATH environment variable has a string containing quotes.