speakup todo?

[Brian Buhrow]

	Hello.  If you want to know how Speakup might work in user-space, check
out yasr, which is a completely user-space based screen reader.  I use it
every day under NetBSD, where it works wonderfully.
	As far as kernel programming goes, see if you can find some books on
the topic, read kernel code, and learn how to generate and use crash dumps
so you can do post mortoms  on kernels after they crash.   Learn how to set
up a serial console since it will let you see panics as they happen, and,
if you have two machines, learn how to set up and use kgdb, the in-kernel
gdb debugger.
	Kernel code isn't that much different from regular code, both  should
be easy to read, as efficient as possible without being convoluted, and as
well tested and bullet proof as possible.
	Good luck, and happy hacking!
On Sep 16, 12:17pm, "Littlefield, Tyler" wrote:
} Subject: speakup todo?
} Hello all:
} I'm trying to transfer, and applying for scholarships and all that I'd 
} like to be able to make some contributions to projects that I can note.
} I'm interested in learning more about kernel programming, and I figured 
} I'd start by working on something I use almost daily. I'm curious then 
} if there's some sort of todo or improvements speakup could have to it.
} I'd also be curious if someone has thought about moving it to 
} userspace--as far as I know, the only thing that we really need the 
} kernel for would be hardware speech (and since serial ports are dying 
} out that could be a dead point), and accessing the console directly. How 
} easy would it be then, to have speakup run in userspace, but access a 
} smaller cut-down version of itself in the kernel to provide the access 
} to the console we need?
} We could use sequence files and access the console through /proc. It 
} could return a file of 2-byte chars, which I believe is how it works 
} now--one byte is the color, and the other byte is the ascii value. The 
} sequence file would just iterate over the console's lines. I'm also 
} curious how we'd handle something like key presses like caps+u to move 
} up a line etc.
} 
} If I'm way off here, I'd still like to help out if possible; is there a 
} todo list around, or stuff people would like to see done? If there are 
} people willing to answer questions from time to time in terms of the 
} kernel programming, since that's something I've not done before, I'm 
} game to start coding.
} 
} Another question is then, how do people catch panics? Since I'm not 
} quite cool enough to write code that just works, I'm sure I'll be 
} dealing with panics, but I can't see them on the console and usually 
} it's when speakup goes boom anyway.
} 
} -- 
} Take care,
} Ty
} http://tds-solutions.net
} The aspen project: a barebones light-weight mud engine:
} http://code.google.com/p/aspenmud
} He that will not reason is a bigot; he that cannot reason is a fool; he that dares not reason is a slave.
} 
} _______________________________________________
} Speakup mailing list
} Speakup at braille.uwo.ca
} http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>-- End of excerpt from "Littlefield, Tyler"