Hi Kirk and all at the Speakup mailing list. I wanted to express my opinions on Speakup's actual design itself and with software speech. First, I hope that Speech-Dispatcher and SpeechD-up (wich are free open source projects) continue to receive bugfixes in CVS, as much as possible, and that at some point all SMP related issues are solved. What if some users need Speech-Dispatcher Hynek eaven after the TTS API provider has been created and works? I suggest still keeping the project around and improving it. Not with features, (Speech-Dispatcher is already cool as it is) but that bugfixes and updates of that type can still be maintained for those who still wish to use it. Now, regarding Speakup itself, I believe Hardware speech is going to be a thing of the passed; especially with computers becoming USB-connection based, and having nno serial ports. My new Gateway desktop is a perfect example. Also, most Linux LiveCD's refuse to use anything but a speakup hardware module, and therefore I wonder if softsynth should be really the approach here? I have to SSH most Linux installations from a working software-enabled Speakup machine here on my network anyways. So there is still a use for old technology, however I wonder if Speakup could be patched to work with USB/firewire/newer synthesizers, and rewrite it's interface so that it uses drivers like softsynth? BTW Kirk, where is the documentation for softsynth itself and how that works? It is not well documented, and I have been wanting to play with writing my own drivers, and do not have a clear API for Speakup/Sftsyn. Regards, --Keith Skype: skypedude1234
