Speakup history lesson, was Re: speakup todo?

[Brian Buhrow]

	hello.  Just as a followup to Kirk and others, let me say that while I
agree the keymap issue is important in that having the screen reader
emulate the keystrokes one already knows for the screen reader one came
from, the most important issue is whether or not Speakup's key map can be
easily modified, and that the documentation contains example key maps.  For
example, I too came from a DOS based screen reader, Flipper, to be precise.
Yasr, which is the screen reader I use today, has a very flexible key
mapping system which permitted me to write a keymap that emulates Flipper's
commands in about 2 hours.  I didn't emulate every stroke, but the ones I
use on a daily basis are the ones I emulated, and it enabled me to become
just as efficient with Yasr as I was with Flipper in no time.
	I suspect Kirk and the others who contributed to Speakup know this,
and while I don't use Speakup on a daily basis, my brushes with it leave me
with the impression that it does, in fact, have a flexible key mapping
system and that one does not need to be a programmer to write the keymaps
for it.   If I'm right, then may I echo Kirk's suggestion that those who
want a JFW key map, write one, and get it included as an alternative
configuration file in the distribution.  If Kirk is willing, and he seems
to be, then there's no problem geting it included moving forward.
Just my 2 cents.
-Brian