On 31 Jul 2003, Krishnakant Ramesh Mane wrote: > you were talking about flite and eflite. Well I > don't know what is the latest in that. Neither do I, which is partly why I asked/suggested you check. > I just downloaded flite and eflite some 3 months > back and I did not like the voices. Yes, I did so too, and the original 8 bit voice was as a demo, and they said it was very poor, and better ones would be coming. > is there a latest upgrade? Part of what I was trying to point out, though probably not clearly enough, was that it might be time to check for a new version. Those of us who are experienced in the open source world can take it for granted that others know how amazingly fast projects develop, improve, and change. Flite seems to be one of those, with promises of better voices. I have already been able to get a newer version with a much better 16 bit voice, but have not checked the web site lately to see if more voices have been converted from the older festival project. So I am suggesting you check periodically. You can already see the problems that can come from using proprietary binary packages like ViaVoice, even if they are "free", as in cost. Long term, flite and it's java counterpart (clone) have far more potential utility, in terms of soft speech. I view the development of open source soft speech on today's cheap hardware as of extreme importance to the blind community, most of whom have no access to computing, for economic reasons, according to what I read in a past thread on this list (wish I could remember the numbers). It appears to me that we are on threshold of the realization of this, as soon as enough of the better quality voices are converted, and the binaries are packaged conveniently enough that non-techie newbies to linux (and for that matter, any OS -- M$ and add-ons cost too much) can get at them easily. Once that happens, the tide of new computer users into the blinux community should help to "lift all boats", as it were -- something that could not happen in the proprietary markets. > I have not been reading all the mails on the > blinux list so I may have missed it. I don't think that each minor release will necessarily be announced: it may be best to check the web site periodically, especially if new voices are what you are primarily interested in. Let us know if you find anything new, and how it sounds to you. LCR -- L. C. Robinson reply to no_spam+munged_lcr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx People buy MicroShaft for compatibility, but get incompatibility and instability instead. This is award winning "innovation". Find out how MS holds your data hostage with "The *Lens*"; see "CyberSnare" at http://www.netaction.org/msoft/cybersnare.html _______________________________________________ Blinux-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/blinux-list