FAQ gally2: Miscellaneous

[Janina Sajka]

A few minor points:

On Sun, 17 Jun 2001, Ann Parsons wrote:

> The document below is designed to answer the most frequently asked
> questions about Speakup, the  screen reader/speech access system for
> the Linux Operating System, used by people who are blind.
I think we mean that speakup is used by people who are blind, not linux
the operating system. In other words, linux isn't for blind people,
speakup is.

> This
> software is primarily developed and maintained by Kirk Reiser

What software? Linux? One could think that because it's the last software
mentioned, so correct grammar suggests that "this" means linux, whereas we
know it really means speakup. Better to just say "speakup."
> Speakup gives you full access
> to all console programs in the Linux OS.
True, but many people, even people very good at using Windows, will not
understand this because they've not encountered the concept of "consoles."
Better to say "character based," or better still "text-based." Examples
like pine and lynx would help illustrate the point.

> A.  At the moment, Speakup supports only hardware synthesizers.  Here
> is a list of what is currently supported.
>
> Accent PC: acntpc
> Accent SA: acntsa
> Apolo: apolo
> Audapter: audptr
> Braille 'n Speak, and other such Blazie products: bns
> DecTalk External (older model): decext
> DecTalk PC (newer model): dectlk
> DoubleTalk PC (internal): dtlk
> LiteTalk/DoubleTalk LT (external): ltlk
> Speakout: spkout
> Transport: txprt
> This list is current as of speakup version 0.10.

I suggest explaining why the keywords are here, something like:

"Notice the keyword abrieviation given above for your speech synthesizer.
You will need to use it, so be sure to note its spelling and learn it
now."

> Instructions on installation for each synthesizer can be found at the
> URL listed above.
>
True, but why not give it again? If the reader is here, then a link here
would be helpful.

> Loadlin.exe enables a Linux installation to be started from a DOS prompt,
> before going into Windows.  You'd need to create a batch file to run
> loadlin.exe with the appropriate parameters.

Why a batch file? Why not just type the command on the command line? Isn't
it just a matter of passing the appropriate speakup_ser and speakup_synth
plus appropriate image arguments?  I think it would make m0ore sense to
prototype this then to get into talking about creating batch files.

> A.  There are many reasons for this including:  a bad rawrite image,
> the wrong comm port setting in the command line, an improperly

Ooopps. "com port" is a Windows designation. Better to be neutral by
saying "serial port."