Or, perhaps we can pass a default synth via lilo argument. To me the key would be the ability to swap synths on a fully booted system. I will go one further. I'd like to be able to silence in one specific console or more, but have speech from Speakup in another console. Such, in my view, would be the best way for Speakup and Emacspeak to get along smoothly, for example. Users should have such options, in my view, whatever our personal partisan opinions might be! <grin> On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Charles Hallenbeck wrote: > Agreed. Your point and that of Kirk W. are good ones. > Maybe a good compromise would be to have speakup be able to use a hardware > synth at bootup if present, but continue to boot and look for a software > synth after bootup if no hardware synth is found. I could live with that. > Chuck > > On Tue, 12 Dec 2000, Janina Sajka wrote: > > > 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 > > > > > > > > > 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.