how to tell which synthesizer is active

[covici at ccs.covici.com]

Hi.  In the old days, even if I had a synthesizer built in the kernel, I
could check and if speakup had deactivated because the synth was not
connected, the name would be changed to none.  I would like to be able
to do this now because I want to automatically switch to a software
synth if my hardware one is not connected.  However, the name of the
synth remains tthe same making it more difficult to do this.

Any ideas on this would be appreciated.

-- 
Your life is like a penny.  You're going to lose it.  The question is:
How do
you spend it?

         John Covici
         covici at ccs.covici.com