Alt-Shift Key Combination Affected

Alt-Shift Key Combination Affected

[Steve Holmes]

When using the recent CVS versions of Speakup, I notice that I can no
longer use alt-shift key combinations such as in emacs anymore.  I
used to be able to do this to move to the bottom or top of a file
(alt-shift-<) and (alt-shift->).  With latest versions of Speakup,
these are now silent and have no effect.  I instead, have to do <esc>
followed by shift-< or shift->.  I think this came about when
different enhancement keys could be combined for single key strokes.

It's sure quiet here on the list.
-- 
Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: Alt-Shift Key Combination Affected

[Kirk Reiser]

Actually what is happening is that because we are no longer modifying
the kernel map you are being left with the default kernel keymap
arrangement which leaves the right altgr alone.  We always spoiled
people by defining it in speakup.  Now that we aren't you have to set
it yourself to get your old behaviour back.  Here is a snippit you can
save to a file and load with loadkeys to get your old behaviour back:

# Default kernel keymap. This uses 7 modifier combinations.
keymaps 0-2,4-5,8,12
keycode 100 = Alt

  Kirk
-- 

Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061

Difference between Redhat, Slackware and Mandrake Linux

[TL Barr]

The answer to this question may be obvious to some, but I have only recently
started considering setting up a Linux system.  Can anyone tell me if there
is any appreciable difference between say Redhat, Slackware and Mandrake as
far as making Linux and the installation speak?  I intend to run a Speak Out
voice synthesizer with the Linux box which currently has Win XP installed.
I am considering making the Linux system Linux only, and reformatting and
particioning the hard drive, so having Linux speaking through the install
would certainly be preferred.

Any suggestions or documentation would be appreciated.

Best regards,

Les

Re: Difference between Redhat, Slackware and Mandrake Linux

[Buddy Brannan]

Mandrake and Red Hat are very similar--in fact, Mandrake was really
just a modified Red Hat optimized for Pentium systems and the KDE
desktop. (This was ages ago.) The similarities are still discernible
though--Mandrake is still Red Hat based, and I'd wager most of the
differences you'd see would be in installation and many of the
X-Window things you're not likely to use. Having said that though,
you'd have an easier time getting a talking Red Hat than a talking
Mandrake, as Red Hat Speakup boot disks are readily available.

The differences between Red Hat and Slackware are quite a bit more
pronounced. If what you want is more hands-on control and manual
configurtion, Slackware is more your speed. Red Hat does a lot
automatically and has a lot of configuration scripts and things for
you to use. While Slackware has some of this, it's much more designed
for manual configuration--configuration files (very well
self-documented ones), some interactive scripts, but a lot you're
expected to configure the way you want with little being assumed by
the OS. 

You may find that Debian presents an alternative somewhere between
these two approaches. While there's certainly lots of room for you do
do your own thing with it, the Debian packaging system is very nice,
having the ability to take care of dependency problems for you when
you install new software. It's worth a look. Regardless, you'll find
many users of all three--Debian, Red Hat, and Slackware--here. I've
used Slack myself--some time ago--and currently use Debian; I hd a
mandrake system for a while (well, it was actually my wife's), but now
I've got Debian on her system as well. 
-- 
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV/3   | "And if the ground yawned,
Phone: (814) 455-7333     | I'd step to the side and say,
Email: davros@ycardz.com  | "Hey ground! I'm nobody's lunch!"
http://www.ycardz.com/    | --Eddie From Ohio

Re: Difference between Redhat, Slackware and Mandrake Linux

[Thomas D. Ward]

Hi.
While I think Mandrake is a great distro it's not the most accessible one,
and getting it working with speakup, yasr, or anything is allot of work. So
at this point I would cross it off your list of distros to work with.
I am not a big fan of Slackware, but it is perhaps about the most accessible
distro you will find as far as installation, setup, and getting your feet
wet with Linux. However, it's downside is if you like lots of  configuration
tools which can turn services on and off, configure sound, printer, etc, it
may not be the best choice, and it also doesn't use sysv, but is more like
BSD. If you don't mind manually setting up everything Slackware might be the
better choice, but if you like all sorts of tools that handhold you Red Hat
may be better in your case.
Red Hat 8.0 does have a talking installer using speakup, but it isn't as
easy as slack to install, but once it is on I think it is worth it. Red Hat
has all sorts of nice features such as the service command which can start
and stop services instantly. It has the chkconfig tool to configure what
services you want to load, and what levels specifically you want to run in,
and which you don't.
Being that Red Hat is perhaps the most popular Linux on the market today you
are likely to find just about any package you want compiled for it, and
indeed allot of development is done in distros like Red Hat and then ported
to compile on others.
Red Hat is also on the bleeding edge and is usually first to get a new
version of something like gnome, a library, compiler, etc... They release
distros often enough so that you can keep up to date with the latest
updates, etc..
If you end up working with business running Linux most of them request Red
Hat or already have it on their systems, and while a Linux user could work
on that box they wouldn't be as experienced in interacting with it as well
as they would do if they knew it from using it personally.
Anyway, that is my reasons for using RH. However, if accessibility is your
number 1 concern then perhaps Slackware at this point is the best.

Re: Alt-Shift Key Combination Affected

[Steve Holmes]

Ahh but I was doing all this with the left alt and shift keys; does
this make a difference?

On Wed, May 14, 2003 at 03:47:45PM -0400, Kirk Reiser wrote:
> Actually what is happening is that because we are no longer modifying
> the kernel map you are being left with the default kernel keymap
> arrangement which leaves the right altgr alone.  We always spoiled
> people by defining it in speakup.  Now that we aren't you have to set
> it yourself to get your old behaviour back.  Here is a snippit you can
> save to a file and load with loadkeys to get your old behaviour back:
> 
> # Default kernel keymap. This uses 7 modifier combinations.
> keymaps 0-2,4-5,8,12
> keycode 100 = Alt
> 
>   Kirk
> -- 
> 
> Kirk Reiser				The Computer Braille Facility
> e-mail: kirk@braille.uwo.ca		University of Western Ontario
> phone: (519) 661-3061
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup