still more on bug

Deedra Waters deedra at the-brannons.com
Tue Feb 14 15:00:47 EST 2012


John Heim wrote
| Well, admittedly, we have a problem down the road regarding serial
| hardware synths. But it will be years before serial ports go away
| entirely. Every Dell server class machine still comes with at least
| one serial port. I don't know about other server manufacturers but I
| would guess they're the same. In fact, even dell small footprint
| desktops still have serial ports. So I think it will be some time
| before server class machines don't come with serial ports. And even
| after serial ports become obsolete, speakup won't be obsolete, it
| will just have to start supporting USB synths.

You say just like it's easy to fix speakup to do what you want it to do. It's not that easy in fat to fix the code, hell i'd fix it if i could my husband would fix it if he could probably, but it's not that easy.

I've got a couple serial synths laying around but the fact is that i've not had a computer with a serial port since 2007 so yep, guess they're out of date. Last time i tried ordering a computer i couldn't get del or hp to add them even though i wanted them.

| 
| Speakup with software speech isn't *that* important.  You can
| probably use orca just about anywhere you use speakup with software
| speech. Yes, I know there are a few exceptions like on a grml CD.
| But you could use vinux or ubuntu instead of grml. The real value of
| speakup is that it works in kernel space.

The kernel folks have kind of made the whole kernel space obsolete. in terms of speakup. it doesn't start talking till late in the boot process even when i did have serial synths useable it didn't start till late in the boot process.

speakup with software speech really is the way to go these days. orca for all intents and purposes isn't really useable not for constant use. I give gnome credit they've created a semi-useable environment for blind folks, but here's the thing.

I used gnome for 4 months. on a good day i'd have to restart orca once or twice an hour on a bad day......5 times in a 1 minute period. That doesn't sound like you could take it into a work environment and use it to do your job. Least speakup could technically be used on the job. When i worked for the OSL i used it with servers. Could i do it with today's speakup? Maybe. But in a server environment maybe not. Serial synths or usb synths would be a useful thing to have in speakup this is true. But, unless there's someone who can write some nice pretty kernel code and fix the current bugs, i'm not sure i see it happening.

Really, it'd be better to put speakup in user space and attack the serial/usb issue from that point. Yeah it's nice to have it in the kernel, but really there's no point to it these days unless you fix "all of the current bugs" and i suspect there's several of them that need fixing.


| 
| I am not sure I'm capable of supporting speakup. Two weeks ago, I
| didn't even know how to display debugging messages.  But I'm not
| willing to just throw up my hands and say that its hopeless.
| 
| ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kitty Litter"
| <n8kl at insightbb.com>
| To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
| Sent: Monday, February 13, 2012 5:29 PM
| Subject: Re: still more on bug
| 
| 
| >Some people are of the opinion that kernel developers will help
| >fix the problem but I think this is pure fantasy. From what little
| >I know the real answer would be to write serial drivers in
| >userspace. This might make it possible to use PCI serial cards.
| >Serial synths are a dying breed anyway. Get used to espeak. I
| >don't have anywhere near the knowledge to do this and too old to
| >learn all I would need to know. So if you are capable of fixing
| >speakup we will all be eternally greatful!
| >
| >_______________________________________________
| >Speakup mailing list
| >Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
| >http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
| >
| >
| 
| _______________________________________________
| Speakup mailing list
| Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
| http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
---end quoted text---



More information about the Speakup mailing list