But it doesn't need to be an either or. Why can't we have both and? On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Charles Hallenbeck wrote: > Excellent points, Brian. There is one more point to be made - a software > synthesizer is not only demanding of memory but of CPU power. That means > if speakup relied on a software synthesizer it would not run on minimum > systems, and there is a lot of need for minimum systems to be accessible, > IMHO. > Ch;uck > > > On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Brian Borowski wrote: > > > There's been a thread about speakup and ViaVoice and writing the code to > > make this work. I wanted to point out a few things about this idea, that > > are going to have to be worked out. > > > > * ViaVoice is a software synthesizer and the kernel has to be running, > > and most of the other parts of linux have to be operational before > > anything can be done with a software synthesizer, unless it gets totally > > built into the kernel; that could make a kernel huge, and would also > > require that sound card stuff (there are very many sound cards out there), > > be loaded into the kernel as well. > > > > * You would miss the real-time boot-up stuff from the kernel, a very > > important feature, in my opinion, especially when trying to figure out > > what is going on when something is not working as it should be, or when > > you're trying to build a kernel and something isn't quite working write. > > You could make use of the kernel message buffer to have the software > > synthesizer speak the startup messages after the fact, but if there was a > > failure during bootup; you would never get the opportunity to hear > > anything at all, because you'd never get the speech started up. > > > > * Then, finally, there's another thing, the kernel is open source, > > speakup is open source, the information is available for the software > > synthesizer API, and perhaps, with some imagination, someone can figure > > out a solution for the above two points. If someone really wants this > > badly enough, why can't they put some effort into coding for this project. > > > > There's more than enough work with the normal speakup development to keep > > a few Kirks busy, without even worrying about ViaVoice, so I suspect, that > > this is one of those projects that someone else will have to do. If > > there's no one else to do it; it probably won't get done for a very long > > time. > > > > Brian Borowski > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Speakup mailing list > > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > > > > My web site is http://www.mhonline.net/~chuckh > The reverse side also has a reverse side. > -- Japanese proverb > > > _______________________________________________ > Speakup mailing list > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup > -- Janina Sajka, Director Technology Research and Development Governmental Relations Group American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) janina at afb.net (202) 408-8175 http://www.afb.org/gov.html The invention of the printing press has been named the crowning achievement of the past millennium. Yet, electronic publishing will soon eclipse it. Read our White Paper: "Surpassing Gutenberg" available at: http://www.afb.org/ebook.html Are you developing software? Make it accessible to blind computer users. Read http://www.afb.org/technology/accessapp.html to learn how.
