Problems with Emacspeak

Problems with Emacspeak

[Bryan Smart]

I've had so much go wrong with this most recent install.  I've written
several times trying to resolve one problem or another, but I think they
are all caused by something I did incorrectly.  Here is a summary of it
all.  I'm hoping that someone will see the common relation.

I performed a fresh install of a RedHat 5.0 system.  This, of course,
included the Emacs 20.2-4 RPM as shipped with RH5.

Next, I went through the standard Emacspeak 7.0 installation procedure.  I
did receive some errors during compiling, which I posted here, but was told
that these are to be expected and that I should ignore them.

I have done nothing else strange with this system.  Under RedHat 4.0 and
Emacs 19.34, I had Emacspeak 6.0 working flawlessly.  Each one of these
variables has been changed, though, and so I don't know where to place the
blame.  Should I get and compile the source for an older Emacs like 19.34?
Is Emacspeak 7.0 not quite ready for primetime?  Might there have been
something else installed with RedHat that I don't know about?

Anyway, here are the problems....

First, after using Emacs for a while, I am unable to quit.  c-x c-c doesn't
work, as does c-e escape c-c fail to operate.  The messages buffer shows a
error which indicates a missing key binding.  This is a very long error
message with lots of technical specifications of which I'm not familiar.
This only happens after using Emacs for a while; I can initially quit after
launching Emacs.  Additionally, I have been able to trace down any specific
activity which causes the command to no longer be valid.

Secondly, when launching term, Emacs complains about "error: no bold
version of nil."  Now, I thought that should be "old version of nil," but I
sware the is a "b" sound.  I can't find the message in the messages buffer
to verify it, either.

Also, while in term, Emacspeak will begin to forget that the buffer is a
term buffer.  The c-c key bindings will go away, and, instead, the c-x key
bindings will come back.  Sometimes Emacspeak's "terminal line mode" will
stop reading output from the shell when this key binding switch happens,
but not always.  I seem to notice them at the same time.

Finally, Emacspeak doesn't like my brand new version of w3.  Perviously,
Emacspeak was complaining about W3 V4.0 being too old (it is the newest
version available at the web site).  A list member suggested that an older
w3 may be installed, but I have since removed all of Emacs (including
searching the system for any other installations of w3) and the complaint
stilll continues after a fresh install of w3.  This may be unrelated, but
you never know.

I used to make infrequent use of Emacspeak (when it worked on the older
system), but was intending to start making a serious routine out of using
the application.  Errors abound, and I am becoming very frustrated.  I
really hope that one of you more experienced people will tell me what
stupid thing I've forgotten to do.  At this point, I have no clue of what
to do other than to re-install RH4, Emacs 19.34, and Emacs 6.0.  I'd rather
stick with current software, though, some I'm eagerly awaiting your
suggestions.

Many thanks in advance!
Bryan

--
Bryan R. Smart
E-Mail: bsmart@pobox.com

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[Brian L. Sellden]

Hi Bryan,

> Secondly, when launching term, Emacs complains about "error: no bold
> version of nil."  Now, I thought that should be "old version of nil," but I
> sware the is a "b" sound.  I can't find the message in the messages buffer
> to verify it, either.

I'm afraid this won't be of much help, but in the
spirit of giving you all available info...

This error message *does* say 'no bold version of nil'.
The odd thing is that I hear it when I launch w3.  I suspect
that some fonts are being mishandled outside of X.  When
I launch w3 in X, I don't get those errors.

Sorry, that's all I can offer.  Please let us know how this
turns out.  I'm upgrading to RedHat 5.0 in a few days.

Regards,

Brian
-- 
---------------
Brian L. Sellden - brian@henge.com, brians@usa.net
User of Emacspeak 7.0,  making Unix talk.
http://www.henge.com/~brian
	      What on earth would a man do with himself
		if something did not stand in his way?
		-- H.G. Wells

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[Bryan Smart]

At 10:39 PM 1/31/98 -0700, you wrote:
>This error message *does* say 'no bold version of nil'.
>The odd thing is that I hear it when I launch w3.  I suspect
>that some fonts are being mishandled outside of X.  When

I don't care if it is a font thing, I was just scared that it might be
indicative of something major which might be missing; good to know this.

As for you upgrading to RH5, I'm secretly hoping that others encounter
these problems so that I know that it isn't just me :].

Best,
Bryan

--
Bryan R. Smart
E-Mail: bsmart@pobox.com

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[James R. Van Zandt]

Bryan Smart <bsmart@pobox.com> writes:
>I performed a fresh install of a RedHat 5.0 system.  
...
>Is Emacspeak 7.0 not quite ready for primetime?

It is stable as far as I know.

>after using Emacs for a while, I am unable to quit. 

Note that the term mode has two sub-modes: char sub-mode and line
sub-mode.  You may be unintentionally switching sub-modes.  This may
account both for the quitting problem and the key binding problem.  I
am appending the relevant part of the emacspeak .info file.

>Emacspeak doesn't like my brand new version of w3.  Perviously,
>Emacspeak was complaining about W3 V4.0 being too old (it is the newest
>version available at the web site).

>From the info file:
    You can download the W3 package from:
    http://www.cs.indiana.edu/pub/elisp/w3/.betas
    
       (At this writing, the "stable" version is 2.2.26, which does not
    include widget.el among other things.  You will need the current
    "beta" version, currently 3.0.86.)

After upgrading your W3, I suggest you try the
emacspeak-7.0-1.i386.rpm I just created.  I uploaded it to the Red Hat
site, but I suppose it will be a while before it becomes accessible
from there or a Red Hat mirror ("contrib" section).  In the mean time,
you can get it from my web page:

     http://www.mv.com/ipusers/vanzandt

I compiled it with an older version of Emacs, but it should still work
with Emacs-20.

If that does not work, I suggest you find a .rpm file for emacs 19.34
and install that.  Reinstalling RH4 should be your last resort.

Hope this helps!

                                  - Jim Van Zandt


   There are two sub-modes of term mode: char sub-mode and line
sub-mode.  In char sub-mode, emacspeak will only speak the finally
displayed line.  Each character typed (except `term-escape-char`) is
sent immediately.  Use char sub-mode for screen oriented programs like
vi or pine.

   In line sub-mode, all program output is spoken.  When you type a
return at the end of the buffer, that line is sent as input, while
return not at end copies the rest of the line to the end and sends it.

   The default is char sub-mode.  You can switch to line sub-mode with
C-c C-j (recall that control J is a linefeed), and back to char
sub-mode with C-c C-k (think of character spelled with a K).

   In both terminal modes, characters you type are spoken.  In line
mode, the command's output and the shell's prompt are also spoken.

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[Jude Dashiell]

Those kind of errors sound to me like emacspeak 7.0 at some point goes
into
alot of unwarranted buffer creation.  This buffer creation among other
things overwrites the
key bindings in memory.  The quit key bindings are in the area that's
being overwritten but
I'd suspect the longer the session the larger the overwrite area will be.



Jude <dashiell@clark.net>

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[Bryan Smart]

I tried installing your RPM package, but had no better luck.

When launching Emacs after configuring, the Compile Log appears and says

*** yes-no-p called with one arguement, but requires two.

Do you know why it would say that?

Bryan

--
Bryan R. Smart
E-Mail: bsmart@pobox.com

Re: Problems with Emacspeak

[Bryan Smart]

The saga continues.

I went back to Emacs 19.34, and Emacspeak works fine for the most part.
Must have something to do with 20.2.

The only problem I'm still having is with w3.  I'm still getting the "this
version is too old" bit.

Someone tell me exactly which versions of Emacspeak and w3 you are running.

Thanks, everyone, for putting up with my endless sequences of questions and
problems.  Your time spent in responding is much appreciated.

Bryan

--
Bryan R. Smart
E-Mail: bsmart@pobox.com

Re: problems with emacspeak

[David Csercsics]

Try it with Speakup you will have better luck. Then you can read the
Emacspeak docs if you want to use it with emacspeak. You'll need to kill
Speakup though while you use Emacspeak.

problems with emacspeak

[Ari]

Hi all,
I eventually got my Doubletalk, and tried to set it up with emacspeak on a
laptop. The first time, we got an error message saying 'Server not running'
but we downloaded the speech server for doubletalk. Now we get another error
message 'Speaker process not running,' but the test program that came with
the doubletalk server works. What's funny is that when we for an experiment
tried the dectalk server, emacspeak did send unintelligible speech to the
synthesizer, but it did recognise it, it's just refusing to recognise the
doubletalk.
Ari