Speakup Web Site

[Alex Snow]

I'm personally not a big fan of wiki-based documentation...It does 
kind of help keep documentation current, but it also produces a lot of 
bad docs (users posting incorrect solutions to problems, poor 
organization, etc) unless it has someone who makes a point of keeping 
the wiki organized and making sure the information is good.
On Tue, Apr 
22, 2008 at 07:01:59AM -0700, Steve Holmes wrote:
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> Keeping the information up to date is crucial here.  I think I like
> the wiki idea once people learn how to use it, it might be a lot
> easier to keep stuff current.  I also agree that a snapshot should be
> made available frequently.  With so many distros not including a
> speakup-patched kernel, this may be the next best alternative and if
> somebody has to go to git to pull down an experimental version of
> speakup, it could be a real turn-off.  Again, many new-comers probably
> haven't a clue about compiling kernels yet and they want a talking
> Linux to try out.
> 
> I think Bill Acker has done a commendable job at keeping up with the
> speakup-modified kernels for the Fedora distributions.  I also commend
> Pat and the Slackware folks for keeping speakup in their kernels
> also.  Since I'm a Slackware user, I should keep more involved with
> them to be sure it stays that way.
> 
> On Wed, Apr 16, 2008 at 05:53:44AM -0700, Tony Baechler wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > One thing that I think is in desperate need of being addressed is making 
> > other developers aware that Speakup exists, greatly increases 
> > accessibility, and can easily be installed into a production kernel.  I 
> > have two specific reasons for saying this.  First, there are very few 
> > distros which include Speakup as part of their official kernel and 
> > installer images.  Unless I'm mistaken, Debian doesn't include it 
> > officially now and the unofficial install image isn't current.  I would 
> > strongly recommend against anyone using the unofficial Etch kernel with 
> > Speakup because it hasn't been updated since the release of Etch and has 
> > known security flaws that aren't fixed.  Most of the smaller and lesser 
> > known distros don't include Speakup either even though there is no good 
> > reason not to include it.  I have thought about using various 
> > specialized distros designed to replace hardware routers and firewalls 
> > but I'm not aware of any that include Speakup.  Obviously the point 
> > would be to keep the distro small but it could still be built into the 
> > kernel.
> > 
> > The second reason may be of less interest to people here but I think 
> > it's important just the same.  That is to make commercial projects that 
> > are based on the Linux kernel also aware of Speakup.  Specifically, I'm 
> > working with a company that makes backup imaging software for DOS, 
> > Windows, and Linux.  It is possible but difficult to use the DOS version 
> > with a screen reader.  I suggested that they could build Speakup into 
> > the Linux version and it would be accessible out of the box.  They 
> > seemed interested but I think the project is stalled because the site is 
> > not current.  I didn't know at the time, but apparently Speakup had 
> > already switched to git and there was no mention of that in the old CVS 
> > repository.  Apparently they found the new git repo but I don't know how 
> > because I wasn't aware of it until Kirk posted the url here.  It makes 
> > it difficult to push for better accessibility when the site is very old 
> > and the project looks abandoned.  While I'm here, I would also like to 
> > suggest putting a link to the most current release (maybe a snapshot 
> > made nightly from git?) and the most recent stable release right on the 
> > home page.  Many people, especially the developers described above, 
> > don't have time to browse through a site just to find a download link.  
> > Since most people consider it a favor to include any kind of 
> > accessibility in their particular distro's kernel, they really don't 
> > understand what Speakup is except that it's supposed to help the blind.  
> > Maybe a mp3 demo of someone using Speakup for daily tasks would be good.
> > 
> > Dawes, Stephen wrote:
> > > What do you want to see in a revitalized Web site? 
> > >   
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 
> - -- 
> HolmesGrown Solutions
> The best solutions for the best price!
> http://holmesgrown.ld.net/
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> _______________________________________________
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> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

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