RE: screader : emacs speek : festival

RE: screader : emacs speek : festival

[Chris Peterson]

Jim,

Here's a quick answer to your question.

Festival is a software speech synthesizer.  It is not a screen reader. 
 All it does is speaks the text it is sent out a sound device.

Screader is about the closest thing to a stand-allone screan reader there 
is.  It can use festival or pretty much any other software tts.  It can 
also, with out to much trouble, talk to a hardware synthesizer.

Emacspeak is a speech subsystem for emacs.  "What does that mean", you 
micht ask?  It means that it is a screen reader, basically, for emacs. 
 Anything you can do in emacs, you can do with speech with emacspeak. 
 Since you can do pretty much anything from emacs, you could use emacs as 
your screen reader assuming you have a synthesizer that there's a usable 
driver for.  If you have a Dectalk, or Doubletalk, you can use emacspeak. 
 There's also a bns/tns/Braille Blazer driver which I assume works but I 
personally have never used it.

Feel free to write me privately if there's anything more I can explain.  I 
too am just learning but I'm happy to help if I can.

Chris

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[Nolan Darilek]

I noticed this message and was curious. How were these figures drawn? Also, what program was used? I needed to somehow draw some ASCII artwork for a project that I am working on, and had considered having someone else do the drawings. But, if there is another way, I'd be glad to try them on my own. :)
Thanks.

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[Jude Dashiell]

Almost certainly linux does have a text-based drawing program.
I think it's called gnuplot.



Jude <dashiell@clark.net>

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[T. V. Raman]

I couldn't resist responding to the "except perhaps drawing
programs"
--check the drawings and figures in my recently published
book-- they were all done with zero sighted assistance
except for a final proof check.

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      Adobe Systems                 Tel: 1 (408) 536 3945   (W14-129)
      Advanced Technology Group     Fax: 1 (408) 537 4042 
      (W14 129) 345 Park Avenue     Email: raman@adobe.com 
      San Jose , CA 95110 -2704     Email:  raman@cs.cornell.edu
      http://labrador.corp.adobe.com/~raman/        (Adobe Intranet)
      http://cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/raman.html    (Cornell)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
    Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are my own and in no way should be taken
as representative of my employer, Adobe Systems Inc.
____________________________________________________________

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[L. C. Robinson]

On Sat, 24 Jan 1998, Jim Stevenson Ph.D wrote:

> Does screader use emacs speek?
> Do either use festival?

Screader will use festival, and any other tts.  It is a smaller,
less resource hungry alternative to EmacsSpeak, I understand.

> Are there differences in linux versions in running these speech utils?

Shouldn't be, but setting them up may be easier with superior
package (installation) managers, such as RedHat's rpm or Debian's
dpkg.

> I have been a fan on unix on the main frame at work for years, but
> am just investigating linux for my pc. My superviser is really
> worried about how much time it will take to actually set it all up. 

Previous Unix experience should help with this.  The big investment
in time is in learning the rich set of tools Unix has to offer.
Initial installation is a breeze with RedHat (but will probably
require some sighted assistance).  Then you have to install the
adaptive hardware or software you need, probably by hand, depending
on what you need: this can be much more tricky, and not all the
stuff that works with MS-DOS... well, you get the idea.

> What propaganda can I use to explain how linux will help me work
> more productively?

Well, Linux almost never crashes.  We run for weeks without rebooting,
and then only for filesystem checks.  You probably already know about
the rich set of tools that Unix has, including lots of text based
ones.  Linux has all these, usually in considerably enhanced form, and
many more.  I can still boot DOS (usually through the dos emulator,
"dosemu"), but rarely do so, because DOS is so hard to manage and
configure, and get things done in, that I get frustrated after a short
time.  But then, I am familar with Linux, know my way around, and you
should realize that I don't really know what some of the difficulties
blind users face are: I am sighted (though I do have a print related
disability).   Almost anything you need to do in Unix or Linux can be
done in text form.  There are text versions of almost everything
except perhaps drawing programs (grin), unlike MS-DOG/Windoze.
Of course there is also the fact that you have real multi-tasking
and muli-user capability, and can switch between things very easily,
like looking something up for the program you are writing, etc.
Virtually all the documentation for Linux is available online, for
reference, even while your editor or word processor is running in
another console, and is of generally excellent quality, and available
in multiple formats, such as ascii, or hypertext (2 main varieties,
info, or html).  You can switch contexts at the touch of a key.  I can
backup in one virtual console while writing in another, and print in
the background (printing jobs always run from a queue in the
background), and serve files and printing, mail, etc, to other
machines, all at the same time, with the built in networking software,
including to DOS/WIN machines.  Linux can do all this and more, with
much less load on the hardware/memory (less slowdown) than with the
Messy-Dos/Windoze environment.  Your boss will probably end up doing
some of this server stuff with your machine, in time.  I've seen it
happen before, like when my son ended up administering a web and mail
server at work (yes, Linux can run a web and/or mail server while you
are using the machine for your normal work).

You can get more details about the extensive capabilities of Linux
from the Linux INFO-SHEET, FAQ, and HOWTOs, though many of the
capabilities are listed in much more technical language, with few, if
any, examples of their uses.

> worried about how much time it will take to actually set it all up. 

Of course, there is a price in time to pay to set up many of the
extra server capabilities properly: this is true of any OS that offers
such things.  But the basic capabilities that you get with Linux (much
more than MS-DOS offers), will all be available almost immediately
after you install the OS, which should only be an hour or so on a
reasonably fast machine, depending on how much stuff you elect to
install (I assume you don't need or want the X-windows GUI stuff,
which takes more time to configure).  How long it takes to install
your adaptive hardware or software depends on what you need, what you
know about it, etc, but will probably be a hand install process: you
will want to read up on this in the HOWTOs, etc, before starting, so
you know more of the particular difficulties you will face, with your
hardware, before starting.  This could be as simple as adding a line
to a config file (/etc/inittab) for a serial terminal, and then
plugging in your speech or braile type terminal, plus installing an
Emacspeak or screader package, following one of the guides that have
been written for this purpose.

In short, the actual work of installation should be fairly short and
easy, barring complications, if you are prepared, in terms of know
how.  Educating yourself is what will take the time, both before
installation, and afterwards, as you learn to take advantage of all
the new power you will have.  Learning new features takes time, no
matter how "user friendly" a computer is, as we all know (but
sometimes management doesn't, and then there's salesmen...).

L. C. Robinson
reply to infynity@cyberhighway.net (a family account)

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[Jos Lemmens]

Hello Jim,

> Does screader use emacs speek?
No, screader doesn't use emacsspeak. It is a stand-alone screen reader.

> Do either use festival?
Yes, screader can use festival. In fact screader can use any speech
synthesizer.

> Are there differences in linux versions in running these speech utils?
Not so far as I know.

--

   -------------------------------
   Jos Lemmens
   The Netherlands
   Tel.: + 31-10-248 0 266
   E-mail: jlemmens@inter.NL.net
   Homepage: www.inter.nl.net/users/jlemmens

Re: screader : emacs speek : festival

[Jim Stevenson Ph.D]

Does screader use emacs speek?
Do either use festival?

Are there differences in linux versions in running these speech utils?

Would any of you be willing to talk by phone for a few minutes to help a
newby get started?

I have been a fan on unix on the main frame at work for years, but am 
just investigating linux for my pc. My superviser is really worried about 
how much time it will take to actually set it all up. 

I now use M K S utils under Dos.

What propaganda can I use to explain how linux will help me work more 
productively?

Thanks.