More about DOS systems

More about DOS systems

[Cleverson]

Hi all

I've read the recent posts about accessibility on MS-DOS and FreeDOS
systems.

I don't know how Provox compares to other DOS screen reader, but as far
as I know, it's the only open source one. Hence, I would also enjoy it
being able to speak through the ESpeak soft synth, especially because
it's the only synth capable of speaking Brazilian Portuguese that has a
DOS version.

Besides it, in addition to FreeDOS, there is another DOS that's free
for non commercial use. It is Enhanced DR-DOS (EDR-DOS). According to
its author, its kernel supports pre-emptive multitasking. See:
http://www.drdosprojects.de/

and:
http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0503736/php/drdoswiki/index.php

Cheers,
Cleverson


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Re: More about DOS systems

[Tony Baechler]

Cleverson wrote:
> I don't know how Provox compares to other DOS screen reader, but as far
> as I know, it's the only open source one. Hence, I would also enjoy it
> being able to speak through the ESpeak soft synth, especially because
> it's the only synth capable of speaking Brazilian Portuguese that has a
> DOS version.
>
>   
Hi,

I think you're right.  I don't know of any other open source screen 
readers for DOS.  One thing I can say is that Provox is very small.  
It's rather old though and doesn't have some features of other screen 
readers.  However, I had to use it once when I had a low memory 
situation and it definitely seems to take the smallest amount of RAM.  I 
should also add that I never really took the time to learn it so perhaps 
I missed some key features.

> Besides it, in addition to FreeDOS, there is another DOS that's free
> for non commercial use. It is Enhanced DR-DOS (EDR-DOS). According to
> its author, its kernel supports pre-emptive multitasking. See:
> http://www.drdosprojects.de/
>
> and:
> http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0503736/php/drdoswiki/index.php
>   


Yes, but it has a few issues.  First, it is not free.  It's freeware but 
not free software.  Second, I don't think it's as stable as FreeDOS.  I 
ran OpenDOS for a while which is I think the same as DR-DOS and it 
worked well enough but wasn't as stable for me.  Finally, FreeDOS is 
always being expanded and I think it will eventually have multitasking 
support.

Re: More about DOS systems

[Samuel Thibault]

Tony Baechler, le Fri 29 Feb 2008 10:19:30 -0800, a écrit :
> I don't know of any other open source screen readers for DOS.

There is a DOS version of brltty, available as binary on 

http://brl.thefreecat.org/brltty/brltty39.zip

Samuel

Re: More about DOS systems

[Tony Baechler]

Hi,

Yes, but does it support speech and Braille?  I understood that speech 
support was preliminary and it didn't have all of the features you would 
expect from a screen reader using speech.  I understood that it is 
primarily for Braille.  There is nothing wrong with that as most DOS 
screen readers are for speech output and have little or no Braille 
support.  I should have clarified that I meant speech screen readers for 
DOS.  I assumed that was obvious because this is the Speakup list.  If 
it in fact has both speech and Braille support, I'll certainly look.  
Does it support software speech?  What about the DEC-talk express?  The 
original comment was about adding software speech synth support to an 
open source screen reader.

Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Tony Baechler, le Fri 29 Feb 2008 10:19:30 -0800, a écrit :
>   
>> I don't know of any other open source screen readers for DOS.
>>     
>
> There is a DOS version of brltty, available as binary on 
>
> http://brl.thefreecat.org/brltty/brltty39.zip
>   

Re: More about DOS systems

[Samuel Thibault]

Tony Baechler, le Sat 01 Mar 2008 01:47:27 -0800, a écrit :
> Yes, but does it support speech and Braille?

For speech, it supports Alva, BrailleLite and CombiBraille. For braille,
it supports a very long list, which can be seen on the brltty web site:
http://mielke.cc/brltty/doc/README.txt

> I understood that speech support was preliminary and it didn't have
> all of the features you would expect from a screen reader using
> speech.

Speech is relatively basic, yes.

> I understood that it is primarily for Braille.

Yes.

> I assumed that was obvious because this is the Speakup list.

Ok :)

> Does it support software speech?

It doesn't have internal support for software speech, and so on DOS it
doesn't support speech (that would require sound drivers, etc.)

> What about the DEC-talk express?

It doesn't support it.

> The original comment was about adding software speech synth support to
> an open source screen reader.

Dave Mielke would sure be glad to add more hardware support to brltty.

Samuel

Re: More about DOS systems

[Tony Baechler]

Samuel Thibault wrote:
> Dave Mielke would sure be glad to add more hardware support to brltty.
>   


What do you mean by this?  The specs for the DEC-talk are easily 
available.  If nothing else, just borrow the code from the Speakup 
drivers.  If it's a matter of finding programmers, I can't help there, 
but I can easily send the DEC-talk Express manual if that would help.  I 
seem to remember a basic Doubletalk manual floating around somewhere but 
I'm sure I don't still have it.  If he is only interested in Braille 
displays, I can't help there either but I might have some old manuals 
around or they might be found with Google.  I don't own a Braille 
display and don't know anything about supporting that hardware.

Re: More about DOS systems

[Samuel Thibault]

Tony Baechler, le Sat 01 Mar 2008 02:11:51 -0800, a écrit :
> Samuel Thibault wrote:
> > Dave Mielke would sure be glad to add more hardware support to brltty.
> 
> What do you mean by this?  The specs for the DEC-talk are easily 
> available.

Sure, but testing would be needed.

> If nothing else, just borrow the code from the Speakup drivers.

Agreed.

> I can easily send the DEC-talk Express manual if that would help.

That would, I guess.

Samuel

Re: More about DOS systems

[Alex Snow]

I'm not sure how you'd get it to work with espeak under dos, as I 
don't think espeak supports anything other then outputting wav files 
under dos...you would have to modify it to use whatever facilities are 
provided for accessing a soundcard under dos.
On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 
02:08:08PM -0300, Cleverson wrote:
> Hi all
> 
> I've read the recent posts about accessibility on MS-DOS and FreeDOS
> systems.
> 
> I don't know how Provox compares to other DOS screen reader, but as far
> as I know, it's the only open source one. Hence, I would also enjoy it
> being able to speak through the ESpeak soft synth, especially because
> it's the only synth capable of speaking Brazilian Portuguese that has a
> DOS version.
> 
> Besides it, in addition to FreeDOS, there is another DOS that's free
> for non commercial use. It is Enhanced DR-DOS (EDR-DOS). According to
> its author, its kernel supports pre-emptive multitasking. See:
> http://www.drdosprojects.de/
> 
> and:
> http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0503736/php/drdoswiki/index.php
> 
> Cheers,
> Cleverson
> 
> 
>       Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o ?nico sem limite de espa?o para armazenamento!
> http://br.mail.yahoo.com/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
Absolutely nothing should be concluded from these figures except that
no conclusion can be drawn from them.
	-- Joseph L. Brothers, Linux/PowerPC Project)

Re: More about DOS systems

[Chuck Hallenbeck]

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Alex,

I promised several folks I would give it a shot, and am putting the
pieces together to attempt that now. You put your finger on the main
missing piece of the puzzle, as I see it now. But provox needs a good
overhaul itself. It is officially more than 20 years old, pre-dating
avision from Artic. It first supported only three HW synths: the Echo
GP, the Votrax external synth, and the Intex Talker. When the Votrax
"votalker" internal board was produced, provox was the first screen
reader to support it. Then the guys with the know-how left Votrax to
form their own company, Artic Technologies, and took the Votalker
concept with them, and provox actually supported the Artic internal
board even before Avision was released. So it's definitely not very
up-to-date, but it is robust and anal-obsessively small. Provox and
Tiny Talk were locked in a friendly race to see who could squeeze the
most code into the smallest space. I forget who won. It was the race
that mattered, not the outcome.

Chuck

On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 02:25:37PM -0500, Alex Snow wrote:
> I'm not sure how you'd get it to work with espeak under dos, as I 
> don't think espeak supports anything other then outputting wav files 
> under dos...you would have to modify it to use whatever facilities are 
> provided for accessing a soundcard under dos.
> On Fri, Feb 29, 2008 at 
> 02:08:08PM -0300, Cleverson wrote:
> > Hi all
> > 
> > I've read the recent posts about accessibility on MS-DOS and FreeDOS
> > systems.
> > 
> > I don't know how Provox compares to other DOS screen reader, but as far
> > as I know, it's the only open source one. Hence, I would also enjoy it
> > being able to speak through the ESpeak soft synth, especially because
> > it's the only synth capable of speaking Brazilian Portuguese that has a
> > DOS version.
> > 
> > Besides it, in addition to FreeDOS, there is another DOS that's free
> > for non commercial use. It is Enhanced DR-DOS (EDR-DOS). According to
> > its author, its kernel supports pre-emptive multitasking. See:
> > http://www.drdosprojects.de/
> > 
> > and:
> > http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a0503736/php/drdoswiki/index.php
> > 
> > Cheers,
> > Cleverson
> > 
> > 
> >       Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o ?nico sem limite de espa?o para armazenamento!
> > http://br.mail.yahoo.com/
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> -- 
> Absolutely nothing should be concluded from these figures except that
> no conclusion can be drawn from them.
> 	-- Joseph L. Brothers, Linux/PowerPC Project)
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

- -- 
The Moon is Waning Crescent (43% of Full)

   My web site is: http://hallenbeck.ftml.net, my phone is: 1-518-334-9022,
         and sometimes I  Jabber. My JID is: chuckh@jabber.org
                                --------
Ten persons who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.
		-- Napoleon I
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