I am going to start work on modifying some aspects of Speakup. The first thing I want to make possible, is some standardized interface for a configuration file. After which, I will try to start work on some options that I need for my own work. As yet, I have found no way in Speakup to control spoken punctuation, among other things, in standard reading mode. For example, in pine, I normally note messages sent directly to me, by running quickly through the index, and looking for plus signs at the beginning of the line. In Speakup, however, I have to park the curser, then go down, and read current character, go down and read current character, etc., since it will not automaticly say the plus sign during normal reading. Also, being a programmer, and something of a linguist, I like to know of all punctuation that is not understood from context. In other words, I have my normal screen reader (Tinytalk, which, btw, seems to oddly have a lot in common with Speakup, to my surprise and delight), say all punctuation other than period, question mark, comma, and exclamation point (all of which can be understood from context, whereas ;()[]{}"':`~@#$%^&*/<>, etc., can not). As such, making this customizable, will be my first effort, unless (1) someone else is already working on it; (2) it is far harder than I think it will be; or (3) it is already possible, and I am not well read enough to know it (very possible). Are any of those true--am I barking up the wrong binary tree; or should I do this? I am going to reread all of the docs before I start, but I am not booted to Linux right now, and thought I would post this while still in my normal environment, so I didn't have to bother with minicom. Apologies if I'm stepping on anybody's toes. I have to say, that despite my critical comments (said opinions having not changed, re the kernel, and so on), I am *highly* impressed with Speakup, and wish to commend those who have been developing it. There are some bugs, which I will address later, and I think the changes file is a bit out of date. Thanks Luke