Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual machines

Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual machines

[Alastair Irving]

All

Since I've now started running linux from a virtual machine under
windows, I was thinking that it should be possible for me to write a
program to emulate a hardware synth and have it listening on a virtual
serial port which could then be connected to my linux virtual machine,
in theory allowing me to use the full capabilities of speakup.

Firstly, has anyone attempted  this before, as I don't ant to waste
time reinventing the wheal.

Secondly, I'm thinking of emulating some sort of external dectalk.
Could anyone point me in the direction of any documentation detailing
the communication protocol used?  

Many thanks

Alastair irving

Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual machines

[Doug Sutherland]

Alastair,

The communication protocol is asynchronous serial uart.
This is probably the most widely documented protocol
ever in existence. That part should be easy. On the end
of that protocol you have the actual synth commands 
received over that communication protocol. You can 
examine the driver code in speakup for details on this.

  -- Doug

Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual machines

[Brent Harding]

I thought I heard someone mention something called Echospeak once that would 
support the commands of an echo synthesizer on a virtual serial port and 
then tell Jaws in Windows to speak what Speakup sent. I never found info 
about this anywhere, so it may have just been an idea.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Doug Sutherland" <doug@proficio.ca>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:48 AM
Subject: Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual 
machines


> Alastair,
>
> The communication protocol is asynchronous serial uart.
> This is probably the most widely documented protocol
> ever in existence. That part should be easy. On the end
> of that protocol you have the actual synth commands
> received over that communication protocol. You can
> examine the driver code in speakup for details on this.
>
>  -- Doug
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual machines

[John Heim]

Maybe this is crazy but I was thinking maybe it would be easier to write a 
driver for speakup that talked to the serial port like a vt100 terminal. The 
idea is that you'd run hyperterminal or something on your Windows machine, 
and when you press a speakup key, it sends whatever text it wants spoken to 
the serial port with appropriate vt100 control codes to get it to display on 
your hyperterminal screen. For instance, if you press a Capslock+u it sends 
the previous line to the serial port. This is then displayed by the terminal 
emulator and spoken by jaws or whatever.

I've tried connecting a null modem cable to the serial port and then telling 
speakup that I have a doubletalk. But it doesn't work. It must be some small 
thing in the initialization that keeps it from working though because I know 
you can just send text to the serial port and the doubletalk will read it.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brent Harding" <bharding@doorpi.net>
To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, August 13, 2007 9:09 PM
Subject: Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual 
machines


>I thought I heard someone mention something called Echospeak once that 
>would
> support the commands of an echo synthesizer on a virtual serial port and
> then tell Jaws in Windows to speak what Speakup sent. I never found info
> about this anywhere, so it may have just been an idea.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Doug Sutherland" <doug@proficio.ca>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." 
> <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:48 AM
> Subject: Re: Considering writing a synth emulator for use with virtual
> machines
>
>
>> Alastair,
>>
>> The communication protocol is asynchronous serial uart.
>> This is probably the most widely documented protocol
>> ever in existence. That part should be easy. On the end
>> of that protocol you have the actual synth commands
>> received over that communication protocol. You can
>> examine the driver code in speakup for details on this.
>>
>>  -- Doug
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Speakup mailing list
>> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
>> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
>