patch for serial synths

Mon Mar 12 19:04:35 EDT 2012

I have written to the linux-serial mailing list -- we shall see what
they have to say on this subject.

John Heim <jheim at math.wisc.edu> wrote:

> The problem with forgetting about trying to make the serial synth
> modules work correctly inside the kernel is that that could get me
> fired.  Well, that may be a bit of an exaggeration. But it ain't
> trivial either.
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Kirk Reiser" <kirk at braille.uwo.ca>
> To: "Speakup is a screen review system for Linux." <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2012 4:17 PM
> Subject: Re: patch for serial synths
> 
> 
> > Yes, well, you have experienced exactly why I quit caring if speakup
> > got into the official linux kernel or not.  I know a lot of folks
> > hoped that once speakup did manage to get in there might be help from
> > the kernel community to fix problems with the system but I never
> > believed there would be help and I still don't.  I believe that unless
> > Samuel or someone else that has good kernel savvy decide to attack the
> > problems and straighten them out or find other solutions, it is just a
> > short period of time before speakup is back out of the kernel again.
> > That will leave another problem though which is speakup's entire git
> > repo structure has been gutted to accomodate a community that doesn't
> > care and who's going to piece things back together afterword?
> >
> > If you wish to be helpful and I personally am glad of it, my
> > suggestion is to forget about trying to make the serial synth modules
> > work correctly inside the kernel and write user space drivers/programs
> > to read the output of the soft synth device and feed hardware synths
> > from user land.  That should make it fairly easy to handle them
> > properly either rs232C or usb.  Then the serial modules could be
> > gutted and concentrate on fixing the problems speakup has that are
> > show stoppers like cut-and-past bug/goto position bug and smp problem
> > with screwing up the order of output.
> >
> > That's my .0000002 bitcoins worth.
> >   Kirk
> >
> >
> > On Wed, 7 Mar 2012, John Heim wrote:
> >
> >> 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.
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Speakup mailing list
> >> Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
> >> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >>
> >
> > --
> > Kirk Reiser The Computer Braille Facility
> > e-mail: kirk at braille.uwo.ca University of Western Ontario
> > phone: (519) 661-3061
> > _______________________________________________
> > 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

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