patch for serial synths

[John Heim]

From: "Samuel Thibault" samuel.thibault at ens-lyon.org
> Note: it's not a proper fix, as it won't prevent you from screwing your
> serial port if you concurrently access it through /dev/ttyS0 while
> speakup is running, but it's probably better than nothing.

Right. I had intended to mention that. I said in another message that I'd 
talk about the controversy I stirred up on the linux-kernel list last 
weekend.  This is a related issue. So here goes...

I signed up to the email list for kernel developers and last weekend I asked 
for help with this bug. The avice I gout was not exactly helpful. To tell 
you the truth, I found the attitude of the people on that list shockingly 
snobbish. They seemed more interested in criticizing the speakup developers 
than in helping me with the bug. In fact, I got no useful advice what so 
ever in actually fixing the bug. The patch I posted is the result of my own 
efforts to figure out what was going on and just make it so it would work. 
Screw correctness.

But there was a debate on the list about the "right" way to fix speakup. It 
looked to me as if the developers offering advice didn't even understand 
what is required from speakup. Never the less, that didn't stop them from 
opining on how it should be rewritten.  I was trying to tactfully suggest 
that the speakup developers must have had good reasons for what they did but 
fortunately, Samuel was there to correct many of their misconceptions.  To 
tell you the truth though, I thought some of them should have been smacked. 
But, I guess you can't do that.

So now I'm not entirely sure how to proceed.  I think I will have to post my 
patch to the linux-kernel list to see if I can get it incorporated into the 
linux kernel code. Admittedly, its a bad fix. All it really does is to cut 
out some code that didn't work anyway. I don't know what the point of having 
speakup at all is if it doesn't work. The patch doesn't really make things 
worse than they were before unless you consider not working at all better 
than working incorrectly.

Then there is the bigger question of fixing speakup so the linux kernel 
developers will approve of it and so that it can support USB synths. I would 
like to start working on that but I don't really know how to get started. I 
think its going to take some talking to the linux developers.  I'm sure 
there's an answer there somewhere. If you can get video as soon as the 
kernel loads, you ought to be able to get speech via a hardware synth. The 
linux kernel sends characters to your video card immediately... Why can't it 
do the same to your hardware synth? An even better example is serial 
consoles. The linux kernel can be made to use a serial console immediately 
upon boot. So the magic is there. Its just a matter of figuring it out.

So I think that what will have to be done is to make a plan that everyone 
can agree on.  I am reluctant for obvious reasons to volunteer anyone else 
for that job. I'm willing to give it a try unless someone objects.