speakup and cepstral? (fwd)

[Hynek Hanke]

> Below is what I've done to the cpstrl-generic.conf file. I decided to
> eliminate things I didn't know how to handle yet, and add them back as I
> figure it out.

Yes, this is a reasonable approach.

> This works from the command prompt, does Pine, reads things
> in more (haven't tried less), and cursor-tracking and numpad functions
> seem to be functional. 

The Speakup keys and what it reads is entirely in the hands of Speakup.
But Speech Dispatcher, Speechd-Up and the configuration file you are
trying to modify is not Speakup. You can think of it rather than one
of the devices that Speakup communicates to and it takes care of software
synthesizers.

So these are two entirely different questions and different tasks. If something
works with Speakup, it should work with Speech Dispatcher and it's devices also.

However, it might be that the configuration file you provide to the generic
output module is buggy in some way and the module crashes when a certain text
is sent into it. It might be an unescaped control sequence, it may be a request
for parameters that are out of range an so on.

> Works in pico or nano but I lose speech completely
> when I load emacs and it doesn't come back until i kill speechd_up and
> speech-dispatcher and start them again.

Most probably, you don't have to kill these two. It's only that the module
crashed for some reason. A solution for this is to switch to some other
Speech Dispatcher output module (some other software synthesizer, flite should
be always available), but under these circumstances (Speakup is an unusual
client) you can do this only through telnet, so I don't recommend it. The other
solution is to make Speech Dispatcher reaload the dead output modules. You can
do this by sending it the signal SIGUSR1 to speech_dispatcher.

Additionally, if you want Speech Dispatcher to reload the configuration files
(after you modify something), it's enough to send the SIGHUP signal. No need
to kill anybody :) I've learnt that the people on this mailing list tend to
be rather violent :)))

> Echoes keystrokes but does not say
> word after space but does say full completion when tab-completion is used.
> At one time speech also stopped when I did control-x in pine and went into
> the spell checker, but in another instance it didn't.

You have to switch on the logging and see the logs for what exactly happens,
what exacts string is being executed in bash and so on.

Also, please see the sections Configuration files of the generic output module
and the whole Output modules section in the user part of the info documentation
provided with Speech Dispatcher for more information. Be sure you understand
the requirements that are put on the ,,say-something'' client of your synthesizer
and this your program really complies with them.

> If I try to insert
> -r $RATE -S $PITCH
> and change the forceInteger lines from 1 to 0, I don't get any speech.

This is not so simple, because your say command probably has a different
scale for the values than Speech Dispatchers defaults or Dectalk software.
Let's postpone this for now.

> I realize that what I've done and what I've left out still leaves a lot to
> e desired, but it still is progress. I haven't turned debugging on yet to
> see what else I can find out; that might help me track down what's going
> on when I load emacs.

Yes, it definitely will.

But as for running Emacs, you might want to try to install the speechd-el
package. speechd-el is not a screen reader (as Speakup), but instead it
is writen directly for Emacs. This approach has the advantage that it
is a higher level approach than a simple screen reader, provides you
with more and better functions and is highly customizable. The downside
of this approach is that it only works with Emacs and the applications
you can run in Emacs. I think the best approach is to combine Speakup
with speechd-el and other specific clients. You can always switch Speakup
off/on for the console where you are running Emacs with some keys.

Please see http://www.freebsoft.org for more information about speechd-el.
(It also runs with Speech Dispatcher, so your configuration file you
are writing now will work for this also).


Please try to determine what text the module crashes on and let me know.
If you are desperate, send me the logfile (after the crash) privately
(it might be rather long).

With Regards,
Hynek