The Speakup User's Guide, official release

[Gene Collins]

Hi all.  I'm pleased to anounce the official release of the Speakup
User's Guide.  It will be on the web site soon, and will appear in the
Documentation/speakup directory of your kernel source tree when you
checkout Speakup.  It is not yet available in these places, but will be
shortly.

Meanwhile, you get it here first, hot of the press!  Enjoy.

Gene


The Speakup User's Guide
For Speakup 2.0 and Later
By Gene Collins
Last modified on Tue Mar 29 10:54:19 2005

Copyright 2005 (r) Gene Collins, and distributed with the Speakup source
under Version II or later of the GPL (GNU Public License).  See the
file "copying" for further details.

Preface

The purpose of this document is to familiarize users with the user
interface to Speakup, a Linux Screen Reader.  If you need instructions
for installing or obtaining Speakup, visit the web site at
http://linux-speakup.org/.  Speakup is a set of patches to the standard
Linux kernel source tree.  It can be built as a series of modules, or as
a part of a monolithic kernel.  These details are beyond the scope of
this manual, but the user may need to be aware of the module
capabilities, depending on how your system administrator has installed
Speakup.  If Speakup is built as a part of a monolithic kernel, and the
user is using a hardware synthesizer, then Speakup will be able to
provide speech access from the time the kernel is loaded, until the time
the system is shutdown.  This means that if you have obtained Linux
installation media for a distribution which includes Speakup as a part
of its kernel, you will be able, as a blind person, to install Linux
with speech access unaided by a sighted person.  Again, these details
are beyond the scope of this manual, but the user should be aware of
them.  See the web site mentioned above for further details.

1.  Starting Speakup

If your system administrator has installed Speakup to work with your
specific synthesizer by default, then all you need to do to use Speakup
is to boot your system, and Speakup should come up talking.  This
assumes of course  that your synthesizer is a supported hardware
synthesizer, and that it is either installed in or connected to your
system, and is if necessary powered on.

It is possible, however, that Speakup may have been compiled into the
kernel with no default synthesizer.  It is even possible that your
kernel has been compiled with support for some of the supported
synthesizers and not others.  If you find that this is the case, and
your synthesizer is supported but not available, complain to the person
who compiled and installed your kernel.  Or better yet, go to the web
site, and learn how to patch Speakup into your own kernel source, and
build and install your own kernel.

If your kernel has been compiled with Speakup, and has no default
synthesizer set, or you would like to use a different synthesizer than
the default one, then you may issue the following command at the boot
prompt of your boot loader.

linux speakup_synth=ltlk

This command would tell Speakup to look for and use a LiteTalk or
DoubleTalk LT at boot up.  You may replace the ltlk synthesizer keyword
with the keyword for whatever synthesizer you wish to use.  The
speakup_synth parameter will accept the following keywords, provided
that support for the related synthesizers has been built into the
kernel.

acntsa -- Accent SA
acntpc -- Accent PC
apolo -- Apolo
audptr -- Audapter
bns -- Braille 'n Speak
dectlk -- DecTalk Express (old and new, db9 serial only)
decext -- DecTalk (old) External
dtlk -- DoubleTalk PC
keypc -- Keynote Gold PC
ltlk -- DoubleTalk LT, LiteTalk, or external Tripletalk (db9 serial only)
spkout -- Speak Out
txprt -- Transport

Note: Speakup does * NOT * support usb connections!  Speakup also does *
NOT * support the internal Tripletalk!

Speakup does support two other synthesizers, but because they work in
conjunction with other software, they must be loaded as modules after
their related software is loaded, and so are not available at boot up. 
These are as follows:

decpc -- DecTalk PC (not available at boot up)
sftsyn -- One of several software synthesizers (not available at boot up)

See the sections on loading modules and software synthesizers later in
this manual for further details.

2.  Basic operation

Once you have booted the system, and if necessary, have supplied the
proper bootup parameter for your synthesizer, Speakup will begin
talking as soon as the kernel is loaded.  In fact, it will talk a lot! 
It will speak all the boot up messages that the kernel prints on the
screen during the boot process.  This is because Speakup is not a
separate screen reader, but is actually built into the operating
system.  Since almost all console applications must print text on the
screen using the kernel, and must get their keyboard input through the
kernel, they are automatically handled properly by Speakup.  There are a
few exceptions, but we'll come to those later.

Note:  In this guide I will refer to the numeric keypad as the keypad. 
This is done because the speakupmap.map file referred to later in this
manual uses the term keypad instead of numeric keypad.  Also I'm lazy
and would rather only type one word.  So keypad it is.  Got it?  Good.

Most of the Speakup review keys are located on the keypad at the far
right of the keyboard.  The numlock key should be off, in order for these
to work.  If you toggle the numlock on, the keypad will produce numbers,
which is exactly what you want for spreadsheets and such.  For the
purposes of this guide, you should have the numlock turned off, which is
its default state at bootup.

You probably won't want to listen to all the bootup messages every time
you start your system, though it's a good idea to listen to them at
least once, just so you'll know what kind of information is available to
you during the boot process.  You can always review these messages after
bootup with the command:

dmesg | more

In order to speed the boot process, and to silence the speaking of the
bootup messages, just press the keypad enter key.  This key is located
in the bottom right corner of the keypad.  Speakup will shut up and stay
that way, until you press another key.

You can check to see if the boot process has completed by pressing the 8
key on the keypad, which reads the current line.  This also has the
effect of starting Speakup talking again, so you can press keypad enter
to silence it again if the boot process has not completed.  

When the boot process is complete, you will arrive at a "login" prompt.
At this point, you'll need to type in your user id and password, as
provided by your system administrator.  You will hear Speakup speak the
letters of your user id as you type it, but not the password.  This is
because the password is not displayed on the screen for security
reasons.  This has nothing to do with Speakup, it's a Linux security
feature.

Once you've logged in, you can run any Linux command or program which is
allowed by your user id.  Normal users will not be able to run programs
which require root privileges.

When you are running a program or command, Speakup will automatically
speak new text as it arrives on the screen.  You can at any time silence
the speech with keypad enter, or use any of the Speakup review keys. 

Here are some basic Speakup review keys, and a short description of what
they do.

keypad 1 -- read previous character
keypad 2 -- read current character (pressing keypad 2 twice rapidly will speak
	the current character phonetically)
keypad 3 -- read next character
keypad 4 -- read previous word
keypad 5 -- read current word (press twice rapidly to spell the current word)
keypad 6 -- read next word
keypad 7 -- read previous line
keypad 8 -- read current line (press twice rapidly to hear how much the
	text on the current line is indented)
keypad 9 -- read next line
keypad period -- speak current cursor position and announce current
	virtual console

It's also worth noting that the insert key on the keypad is mapped
as the speakup key.  Instead of pressing and releasing this key, as you
do under DOS or Windows, you hold it like a shift key, and press other
keys in combination with it.  For example, repeatedly holding keypad
insert, from now on called speakup, and keypad enter will toggle the
speaking of new text on the screen on and off.  This is not the same as
just pressing keypad enter by itself, which just silences the speech
until you hit another key.  When you hit speakup plus keypad enter,
Speakup will say, "You turned me off.", or "Hey, that's better."  When
Speakup is turned off, no new text on the screen will be spoken.  You
can still use the reading controls to review the screen however.

3.  Using the Speakup Help System

Speakup has a help system, which is compiled as a module.  It is loaded
automatically whenever the Speakup help system is invoked for the first
time, and remains loaded after that, until speakup is unloaded.  Note
that if speakup was compiled into a monolithic kernel on your system,
you will not be able to unload Speakup from your kernel.  If you try to
use the help system, and find that it is unavailable, then your system
administrator has not installed the Speakup help module, which is called
speakup_help.  Complain to your system administrator about this.

In order to enter the Speakup help system, press and hold the speakup
key (remember that this is the keypad insert key), and press the f1 key.
You will hear the message:

"Press space to leave help, cursor up or down to scroll, or a letter to
go to commands in list."

When you press the spacebar to leave the help system, you will hear:

"Leaving help."

While you are in the Speakup help system, you can scroll up or down
through the list of available commands using the cursor keys.  The list
of commands is arranged in alphabetical order.  If you wish to jump to
commands in a specific part of the alphabet, you may press the letter of
the alphabet you wish to jump to.

You can also just explore by typing keyboard keys.  Pressing keys will
cause Speakup to speak the command associated with that key.  For
example, if you press the keypad 8 key, you will hear:

"Keypad 8 is line, say current."

You'll notice that some commands do not have keys assigned to them. 
This is because they are very infrequently used commands, and are also
accessible through the proc system.  We'll discuss the proc system later
in this manual.

You'll also notice that some commands have two keys assigned to them. 
This is because Speakup has a built in set of alternative key bindings
for laptop users.  The alternate speakup key is the caps lock key.  You
can press and hold the caps lock key, while pressing an alternate
speakup command key to activate the command.  On most laptops, the
numeric keypad is defined as the keys in the j k l area of the keyboard.

There is usually a function key which turns this keypad function on and
off, and some other key which controls the numlock state.  Toggling the
keypad functionality on and off can become a royal pain.  So, Speakup
gives you a simple way to get at an alternative set of key mappings for
your laptop.  These are also available by default on desktop systems,
because Speakup does not know whether it is running on a desktop or
laptop.  So you may choose which set of Speakup keys to use.  Some
system administrators may have chosen to compile Speakup for a desktop
system without this set of alternate key bindings, but these details are
beyond the scope of this manual.  To use the caps lock for its normal
purpose, hold the shift key while toggling the caps lock on and off.  We
should note here, that holding the caps lock key and pressing the z key
will toggle the alternate j k l keypad on and off.

4.  Keys and Their Assigned Commands

In this section, we'll go through a list of all the speakup keys and
commands.  You can also get a list of commands and assigned keys from
the help system.

The following list was taken from the speakupmap.map file.  Key
assignments are on the left of the equal sign, and the associated
Speakup commands are on the right.  The designation "spk" means to press
and hold the speakup key, a.k.a. keypad insert, a.k.a. caps lock, while
pressing the other specified key.

spk key_f9 = punc_level_dec
spk key_f10 = punc_level_inc
spk key_f11 = reading_punc_dec
spk key_f12 = reading_punc_inc
spk key_1 = vol_dec
spk key_2 =  vol_inc
spk key_3 = pitch_dec
spk key_4 = pitch_inc
spk key_5 = rate_dec
spk key_6 = rate_inc
key_kpasterisk = toggle_cursoring
spk key_kpasterisk = speakup_goto
spk key_f1 = speakup_help
spk key_f2 = set_win
spk key_f3 = clear_win
spk key_f4 = enable_win
spk key_f5 = edit_some
spk key_f6 = edit_most
spk key_f7 = edit_delim
spk key_f8 = edit_repeat
shift spk key_f9 = edit_exnum
 key_kp7 = say_prev_line
spk key_kp7 = left_edge
 key_kp8 = say_line
double  key_kp8 = say_line_indent
spk key_kp8 = say_from_top
 key_kp9 = say_next_line
spk  key_kp9 = top_edge
 key_kpminus = speakup_parked
spk key_kpminus = say_char_num
 key_kp4 = say_prev_word
spk key_kp4 = say_from_left
 key_kp5 = say_word
double key_kp5 = spell_word
spk key_kp5 = spell_phonetic
 key_kp6 = say_next_word
spk key_kp6 = say_to_right
 key_kpplus = say_screen
spk key_kpplus = say_win
 key_kp1 = say_prev_char 
spk key_kp1 = right_edge
 key_kp2 = say_char
spk key_kp2 = say_to_bottom
double key_kp2 = say_phonetic_char
 key_kp3 = say_next_char  
spk  key_kp3 = bottom_edge
 key_kp0 = spk_key
 key_kpdot = say_position
spk key_kpdot = say_attributes
key_kpenter = speakup_quiet
spk key_kpenter = speakup_off
key_sysrq = speech_kill
 key_kpslash = speakup_cut
spk key_kpslash = speakup_paste
spk key_pageup = say_first_char
spk key_pagedown = say_last_char
key_capslock = spk_key
 spk key_z = spk_lock
key_leftmeta = spk_key
ctrl spk key_0 = speakup_goto
spk key_u = say_prev_line
spk key_i = say_line
double spk key_i = say_line_indent
spk key_o = say_next_line
spk key_minus = speakup_parked
shift spk key_minus = say_char_num
spk key_j = say_prev_word
spk key_k = say_word
double spk key_k = spell_word
spk key_l = say_next_word
spk key_m = say_prev_char
spk key_comma = say_char
double spk key_comma = say_phonetic_char
spk key_dot = say_next_char
spk key_n = say_position
 ctrl spk key_m = left_edge
 ctrl spk key_y = top_edge
 ctrl spk key_dot = right_edge
ctrl spk key_p = bottom_edge
spk key_apostrophe = say_screen
spk key_h = say_from_left
spk key_y = say_from_top
spk key_semicolon = say_to_right
spk key_p = say_to_bottom
spk key_slash = say_attributes
 spk key_enter = speakup_quiet
 ctrl  spk key_enter = speakup_off
 spk key_9 = speakup_cut
spk key_8 = speakup_paste
shift spk key_m = say_first_char
 ctrl spk key_semicolon = say_last_char

5.  The Speakup Proc System

The Speakup screen reader also creates a speakup subdirectory as a part
of the proc system.  You can see these entries by typing the command:

ls -1 /proc/speakup/*

If you issue the above ls command, you will get back something like
this:

/proc/speakup/attrib_bleep
/proc/speakup/bell_pos
/proc/speakup/bleep_time
/proc/speakup/bleeps
/proc/speakup/caps_start
/proc/speakup/caps_stop
/proc/speakup/characters
/proc/speakup/cursor_time
/proc/speakup/delay_time
/proc/speakup/delimiters
/proc/speakup/ex_num
/proc/speakup/freq
/proc/speakup/full_time
/proc/speakup/jiffy_delta
/proc/speakup/key_echo
/proc/speakup/keymap
/proc/speakup/no_interrupt
/proc/speakup/pitch
/proc/speakup/punc_all
/proc/speakup/punc_level
/proc/speakup/punc_most
/proc/speakup/punc_some
/proc/speakup/punct
/proc/speakup/rate
/proc/speakup/reading_punc
/proc/speakup/repeats
/proc/speakup/say_control
/proc/speakup/say_word_ctl
/proc/speakup/silent
/proc/speakup/spell_delay
/proc/speakup/synth_direct
/proc/speakup/synth_name
/proc/speakup/tone
/proc/speakup/trigger_time
/proc/speakup/version
/proc/speakup/voice
/proc/speakup/vol

In addition to using the Speakup hot keys to change such things as
volume, pitch, and rate, you can also echo values to the appropriate
entry in the /proc/speakup directory.  This is very useful, since it
lets you control Speakup parameters from within a script.  How you
would write such scripts is somewhat beyond the scope of this manual,
but I will include a couple of simple examples here to give you a
general idea of what such scripts can do.

Suppose for example, that you wanted to control both the punctuation
level and the reading punctuation level at the same time.  For
simplicity, we'll call them punc0, punc1, punc2, and punc3.  The scripts
might look something like this:

#!/bin/bash
# punc0: sets reading punc and punc level to 0.
echo 0 >/proc/speakup/punc_level
echo Punctuation level set to 0.

#!/bin/bash
# punc1: sets reading punc and punc level to 1.
echo 1 >/proc/speakup/punc_level
echo Punctuation level set to 1.

#!/bin/bash
# punc2: sets reading punc and punc level to 2.
echo 2 >/proc/speakup/punc_level
echo Punctuation level set to 2.

#!/bin/bash
# punc3: sets reading punc and punc level to 3.
echo 3 >/proc/speakup/punc_level
echo Punctuation level set to 3.

If you were to store these four small scripts in a directory in your
path, perhaps /usr/local/bin, and set the permissions to 755 with the
chmod command, then you could change the default reading punc and
punctuation levels at the same time by issuing just one command.  For
example, if you were to execute the punc3 command at your shell prompt,
then the reading punc and punc level would both get set to 3.

I should note that the above scripts were written to work with bash, but
regardless of which shell you use, you should be able to do something
similar.

The Speakup proc system also has another interesting use.  You can echo
Speakup parameters into the proc system in a script during system
startup, and speakup will return to your preferred parameters every time
the system is rebooted.

Most of the Speakup proc parameters can be manipulated by a regular user
on the system.  However, there are a few parameters that are dangerous
enough that they should only be manipulated by the root user on your
system.  There are even some parameters that are read only, and cannot
be written to at all.  For example, the version entry in the Speakup
proc system is read only.  This is because there is no reason for a user
to tamper with the version number which is reported by Speakup.  Doing
an ls -l on /proc/speakup/version will return this:

-r--r--r--    1 root     root            0 Mar 21 13:46 /proc/speakup/version

As you can see, the version entry in the Speakup proc system is read
only, is owned by root, and belongs to the root group.  Doing a cat of
/proc/speakup/version will display the Speakup version number, like
this:

cat /proc/speakup/version
Speakup v-2.00 CVS: Thu Oct 21 10:38:21 EDT 2004 
synth dtlk version 1.1

The display shows the Speakup version number, along with the version
number of the driver for the current synthesizer.

Looking at entries in the Speakup proc system can be useful in many
ways.  For example, you might wish to know what level your volume is set
at.  You could type:

cat /proc/speakup/vol
5

The number five which comes back is the level at which the synthesizer
volume is set at.

All the entries in the Speakup proc system are readable, some are
writable by root only, and some are writable by everyone.  Unless you
know what you are doing, you should probably leave the ones that are
writable by root only alone.  Most of the names are self explanatory. 
Vol for controlling volume, pitch for pitch, rate for controlling speaking
rate, etc.  If you find one you aren't sure about, you can post a query
on the Speakup list.

6.  Changing Synthesizers

It is possible to change to a different synthesizer while speakup is
running.  In other words, it is not necessary to reboot the system
in order to use a different synthesizer.  You can simply echo the
synthesizer keyword to the /proc/speakup/synth_name proc entry. 
Depending on your situation, you may wish to echo none to the synth_name
proc entry, to disable speech while one synthesizer is disconnected and
a second one is connected in its place.  Then echo the keyword for the
new synthesizer into the synth_name proc entry in order to start speech
with the newly connected synthesizer.  See the list of synthesizer
keywords in section 1 to find the keyword which matches your synth.

7.  Loading modules

As mentioned earlier, Speakup can either be completely compiled into the
kernel, with the exception of the help module, or it can be compiled as
a series of modules that can be loaded after the system is booted up.
When compiled as modules, Speakup will not be able to speak the bootup
messages, and the modules can only be loaded after the file systems have
been checked and mounted.  There is a third possibility.  Speakup can be
compiled with some components built into the kernel, and others as
modules.  As we'll see in the next section, this is particularly useful
when you are working with software synthesizers.

If Speakup is completely compiled as modules, then you must use the
modprobe command to load Speakup.  You do this by loading the module for
the synthesizer driver you wish to use.  The driver modules are all
named speakup_<keyword>, where <keyword> is the keyword for the
synthesizer you want.  So, in order to load the driver for the DecTalk
Express, you would type the following command:

modprobe speakup_dectlk

Issuing this command would load the DecTalk Express driver and all other
related Speakup modules necessary to get Speakup up and running.

To completely unload Speakup, again presuming that it is entirely built
as modules, you would give the command:

modprobe -r speakup_dectlk

The above command assumes you were running a DecTalk Express.  If you
were using a different synth, then you would substitute its keyword in
place of dectlk.

But now, suppose we have a situation where the main Speakup component
is built into the kernel, and some or all of the drivers are built as
modules.  Since the main part of Speakup is compiled into the kernel, a
partial Speakup proc system has been created which we can take advantage
of by simply echoing the synthesizer keyword into the
/proc/speakup/synth_name proc entry.  This will cause the kernel to
automatically load the appropriate driver module, and start Speakup
talking.  To switch to another synth, just echo a new keyword to the
synth_name proc entry.  For example, to load the DoubleTalk LT driver,
you would type:

echo ltlk >/proc/speakup/synth_name

You can use the modprobe -r command to unload driver modules, regardless
of whether the main part of Speakup has been built into the kernel or
not.

8.  Using Software Synthesizers

Using a software synthesizer requires that some other software be
installed and running on your system.  For this reason, software
synthesizers are not available for use at bootup, or during a system
installation process.

In order to use a software synthesizer, you must have a package called
Speech Dispatcher running on your system, and it must be configured to
work with one of its supported software synthesizers.

Two open source synthesizers you might use are Flite and Festival.  You
might also choose to purchase the Software DecTalk from Fonix Sales Inc.
If you run a google search for Fonix, you'll find their web site.

You can obtain a copy of Speech Dispatcher from free(b)soft at
http://www.freebsoft.org/.  Follow the installation instructions that
come with Speech Dispatcher in order to install and configure Speech
Dispatcher.  You can check out the web site for your Linux distribution
in order to get a copy of either Flite or Festival.  Your Linux
distribution may also have a precompiled Speech Dispatcher package.

Once you've installed, configured, and tested Speech Dispatcher with your
chosen software synthesizer, you still need one more piece of software
in order to make things work.  You need a package called speechd-up. 
You get it from the free(b)soft web site mentioned above.  After you've
compiled and installed speechd-up, you are almost ready to begin using
your software synthesizer.

Before you can use a software synthesizer, you must have created the
/dev/softsynth device.  If you have not already done so, issue the
following commands as root:

cd /dev
mknod softsynth c 10 26

While we are at it, we might just as well create the /dev/synth device,
which can be used to let user space programs send information to your
synthesizer.  To create /dev/synth, change to the /dev directory, and
issue the following command as root:

mknod synth c 10 25

Now you can begin using your software synthesizer.  In order to do so,
echo the sftsyn keyword to the synth_name proc entry like this:

echo sftsyn >/proc/speakup/synth_name

Next run the speechd_up command like this:

speechd_up &

Your synth should now start talking, and you should be able to adjust
the pitch, rate, etc.

In this section, we have assumed that your copy of Speakup was compiled
with the speakup_sftsyn component either built into the kernel, or
compiled as a module.

9.  Using The DecTalk PC Card

The DecTalk PC card is an ISA card that is inserted into one of the ISA
slots in your computer.  It requires that the DecTalk PC software be
installed on your computer, and that the software be loaded onto the
Dectalk PC card before it can be used.

You can get the dec_pc.tgz file from the linux-speakup.org site.  The
dec_pc.tgz file is in the ~ftp/pub/linux/speakup directory.

After you have downloaded the dec_pc.tgz file, untar it in your home
directory, and read the Readme file in the newly created dec_pc
directory.

The easiest way to get the software working is to copy the entire dec_pc
directory into /user/local/lib.  To do this, su to root in your home
directory, and issue the command:

cp dec_pc /usr/local/lib

You will need to copy the dtload command from the dec_pc directory to a
directory in your path.  Either /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin is a good
choice.

You can now run the dtload command in order to load the DecTalk PC
software onto the card.  After you have done this, echo the decpc
keyword to the synth_name entry in the proc system like this:

echo decpc >/proc/speakup/synth_name

Your DecTalk PC should start talking, and then you can adjust the pitch,
rate, volume, voice, etc.  The voice entry in the Speakup proc system
will accept a number from 0 through 7 for the DecTalk PC synthesizer,
which will give you access to some of the DecTalk voices.

10.  Using Cursor Tracking

In Speakup version 2.0 and later, cursor tracking is turned on by
default.  This means that when you are using an editor, Speakup will
automatically speak characters as you move left and right with the
cursor keys, and lines as you move up and down with the cursor keys.

This is extremely useful, and makes editing files a snap.  But there are
times when cursor tracking can get in your way.  So Speakup provides a
toggle to turn cursor tracking on and off.  You do this with the keypad
asterisk key.  Pressing this key repeatedly will toggle the cursor
tracking on and off, and you will hear Speakup say, "cursoring off", and
"cursoring on".

Some folks like to turn cursor tracking off while they are using the
lynx web browser.  You definitely want to turn cursor tracking off when
you are using the alsamixer application.  Otherwise, you won't be able
to hear your mixer settings while you are using the arrow keys.

11.  Cut and Paste

One of Speakup's more useful features is the ability to cut and paste
text on the screen.  This means that you can capture information from a
program, and paste that captured text into a different place in the
program, or into an entirely different program, which may even be
running on a different console.

For example, in this manual, we have made references to several web
sites.  It would be nice if you could cut and paste these urls into your
web browser.  Speakup does this quite nicely.  Suppose you wanted to
past the following url into your browser:

http://linux-speakup.org/

Use the speakup review keys to position the reading cursor on the first
character of the above url.  When the reading cursor is in position,
press the keypad slash key once.  Speakup will say, "mark".  Next,
position the reading cursor on the rightmost character of the above
url. Press the keypad slash key once again to actually cut the text
from the screen.  Speakup will say, "cut".  Although we call this
cutting, Speakup does not actually delete the cut text from the screen. 
It makes a copy of the text in a special buffer for later pasting.

Now that you have the url cut from the screen, you can paste it into
your browser, or even paste the url on a command line as an argument to
your browser.

Suppose you want to start lynx and go to the Speakup site.

You can switch to a different console with the alt left and right
arrows, or you can switch to a specific console by typing alt and a
function key.  These are not Speakup commands, just standard Linux
console capabilities.

Once you've changed to an appropriate console, and are at a shell prompt,
type the word lynx, followed by a space.  Now press and hold the speakup
key, while you type the keypad slash character.  The url will be pasted
onto the command line, just as though you had typed it in.  Press the
enter key to execute the command.

The paste buffer will continue to hold the cut information, until a new
mark and cut operation is carried out.  This means you can paste the cut
information as many times as you like before doing another cut
operation.

You are not limited to cutting and pasting only one line on the screen.
You can also cut and paste rectangular regions of the screen.  Just
position the reading cursor at the top left corner of the text to be
cut, mark it with the keypad slash key, then position the reading cursor
at the bottom right corner of the region to be cut, and cut it with the
keypad slash key.

12.  Changing the Pronunciation of Characters

Through the /proc/speakup/chars proc entry, Speakup gives you the
ability to change how Speakup pronounces a given character.  You could,
for example, change how some punctuation characters are spoken.  You can
even change how Speakup will pronounce certain letters.

You may, for example, wish to change how Speakup pronounces the z
character.  The author of Speakup, Kirk Reiser, is Canadian, and thus
believes that the z should be pronounced zed.  If you are an American,
you might wish to use the zee pronunciation instead of zed.  You can
change the pronunciation of both the upper and lower case z with the
following two commands:

echo 90 zee >/proc/speakup/characters
echo 122 zee >/proc/speakup/characters

Let's examine the parts of the two previous commands.  They are issued
at the shell prompt, and could be placed in a startup script.

The word echo tells the shell that you want to have it display the
string of characters that follow the word echo.  If you were to just
type:

echo hello.

You would get the word hello printed on your screen as soon as you
pressed the enter key.  In this case, we are echoing strings that we
want to be redirected into the proc system.

The numbers 90 and 122 in the above echo commands are the ascii numeric
values for the upper and lower case z, the characters we wish to change.

The string zee is the pronunciation that we want Speakup to use for the
upper and lower case z.

The > symbol redirects the output of the echo command to a file, just
like in DOS, or at the Windows command prompt.

And finally, /proc/speakup/chars is the file entry in the proc system
where we want the output to be directed.  Speakup looks at the numeric
value of the character we want to change, and inserts the pronunciation
string into an internal table.

You can look at the whole table with the following command:

cat /proc/speakup/chars

Speakup will then print out the entire character pronunciation table.  I
won't display it here, but leave you to look at it at your convenience.

13.  Mapping Keys

Speakup has the capability of allowing you to assign or "map" keys to
internal Speakup commands.  This section necessarily assumes you have a
Linux kernel source tree installed, and that it has been patched and
configured with Speakup.  How you do this is beyond the scope of this
manual.  For this information, visit the Speakup web site at
http://linux-speakup.org/.  The reason you'll need the kernel source
tree patched with Speakup is that the genmap utility you'll need for
processing keymaps is in the
/usr/src/linux-<version_number>/drivers/char/speakup directory.  The
<version_number> in the above directory path is the version number of
the Linux source tree you are working with.

So ok, you've gone off and gotten your kernel source tree, and patched
and configured it.  Now you can start manipulating keymaps.

You can either use the
/usr/src/linux-<version_number>/drivers/char/speakup/speakupmap.map file
included with the Speakup source, or you can cut and paste the copy in
section 4 into a separate file.  If you use the one in the Speakup
source tree, make sure you make a backup of it before you start making
changes.  You have been warned!

Suppose that you want to swap the key assignments for the Speakup
say_last_char and the Speakup say_first_char commands.  The
speakupmap.map lists the key mappings for these two commands as follows:

spk key_pageup = say_first_char
spk key_pagedown = say_last_char

You can edit your copy of the speakupmap.map file and swap the command
names on the right side of the = (equals) sign.  You did make a backup,
right?  The new keymap lines would look like this:

spk key_pageup = say_last_char
spk key_pagedown = say_first_char

After you edit your copy of the speakupmap.map file, save it under a new
file name, perhaps newmap.map.  Then exit your editor and return to the
shell prompt.

You are now ready to load your keymap with your swapped key assignments.
 Assuming that you saved your new keymap as the file newmap.map, you
would load your keymap into the proc system like this:

/usr/src/linux-<version_number>/drivers/char/speakup/genmap newmap.map
>/proc/speakup/keymap

Remember to substitute your kernel version number for the
<version_number> in the above command.  Also note that although the
above command wrapped onto two lines in this document, you should type
it all on one line.

Your say first and say last characters should now be swapped.  Pressing
speakup pagedown should read you the first non-whitespace character on
the line your reading cursor is in, and pressing speakup pageup should
read you the last character on the line your reading cursor is in.

You should note that these new mappings will only stay in effect until
you reboot, or until you load another keymap.

One final warning.  If you try to load a partial map, you will quickly
find that all the mappings you didn't include in your file got deleted
from the working map.  Be extremely careful, and always make a backup! 
You have been warned!

The End.