Michael, I for one think that the idea is a great one. I do not have a hardware synth, and I do not have the knowledge, or interest to do the technical work required to figure out how to set up a distribution or the packages up like you describe. I was introduced to Linux by slackware when it was on a fist full of floppies. I would be interested. Scott -----Original Message----- From: speakup-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:speakup-bounces at braille.uwo.ca] On Behalf Of Michael Whapples Sent: Friday, October 05, 2007 5:53 AM To: speakup at braille.uwo.ca Subject: slackware and accessibility packages Hello, I don't know how much interest this would be, but I am sure you will let me know. I am thinking of creating slackware packages of some of the accessibility related tools and any dependencies which are not already in packaged formats. This would also cover any dependencies for these packages which are not already available in slackware packages (either from slackware or some of the alternative repositories). I have currently made packages for espeak and speech-dispatcher (I have also done dotconf as this is a dependency for speech-dispatcher). I am considering starting a project/community for this topic. Aims would be to create and maintain SlackBuild scripts and packages as described above, encourage mainstream projects to include accessibility as default (eg. gnome slacky www.slacky.eu installs orca, gnome-speech as default when doing a full install, and they have festival in the repository, but they don't install festival as part of a full install (so orca by default cannot output speech), I would try and encourage them to alter this to include festival as part of a full install). Also I would try and encourage projects to take on packages not currently included at all and possibly maintain the package for them (eg. neither slackware or gnome slacky have espeak, speech-dispatcher or speechd-up so there is no way to use speakup with software synths without compiling software). I would not intend to try and create a custom distro of slackware, as I think it is preferrable if the accessibility is there as default, although I wouldn't rule it out should there be a significant call for something and it being sufficiently different that a custom distro would make sense (eg. a slackware install disk with speakup and software speech support, so an install can be done without a hardware synth). Any ideas on this? Is there call for this? From Michael Whapples _______________________________________________ Speakup mailing list Speakup at braille.uwo.ca http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
