Re: [orca-list] Announcing the OpenTTS project, a fork of speech-dispatcher

[Bill Cox <waywardgeek gmail com>]

Luke is project lead, though I believe a couple of others may also
have authority to commit changes.  However, Luke has to date worked to
form consensus on the opentts-dev mailing list before making
significant changes.  Progress in the last several weeks has been
truly outstanding, and I for one am happy that opentts is in good
hands, and that I probably wont have to go digging into this code
anymore :-)

Bill

On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 1:09 AM, A <avalon friendofpooh com> wrote:
> Who's project lead or is there a committee? Sorry but it is not
> obvious from the announcement who's having the final word on
> decisions.
>
> Thanks.
>
> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 4:07 AM, Luke Yelavich <themuso ubuntu com> wrote:
> > I am writing to announce a fork of speech-dispatcher, the open source text-to-speech framework, initially 
> > developed by Brailcom as a part of the freebsoft project, http://www.freebsoft.org. The fork also includes 
> > other important components of the speech stack, including speechd-up, the connector between speakup and 
> > speech-dispatcher, and the speech-dispatcher java bindings. As you may have guessed from the subject, the 
> > fork is now called OpenTTS. OpenTTS refers to both the speech server, API and documentation, as well as 
> > the umbrella project as a whole. The other projects mentioned above have also been given new names, 
> > speechd-up is now known as OSpeakup, and speechd-java is now known as OpenTTS-java.
> >
> > Why Fork Speech Dispatcher and Related Projects?
> >
> > One of the fundamental freedoms granted by the GPL is the freedom to publish one's modifications to the 
> > source code of a software product.  Sometimes, such publication takes the form of a fork, in which the 
> > modified product is developed separately from the original. In this case, we've chosen to make forks of 
> > software initially produced by the Brailcom group. We'll describe our reasons for doing that below.
> >
> > The Brailcom group had a great idea.  They wanted to provide a system or user-level service to control 
> > synthetic speech.  That was Speech Dispatcher. They created libraries to ease the task of communicating 
> > with that service, so that it would be possible for programmers to speech-enable their applications , 
> > simply by calling output functions provided by one of these libraries.  For several years, Brailcom 
> > actively maintained and promoted Speech Dispatcher and the software associated with it. They innovated, 
> > and the community at large was slow to adopt.
> >
> > Over time, projects within the accessibility community began to embrace Speech Dispatcher.  It is now the 
> > preferred speech synthesis backend of the Orca screenreader. The Speakup screenreader can control many 
> > software-based text-to-speech engines with the help of Speech Dispatcher and a small connector program. 
> > One advantage of that strategy is that Orca and Speakup can cooperatively use the same text-to-speech 
> > engine.  The key point is that many projects have adopted Speech Dispatcher, to a greater or lesser extent.
> >
> > As time passed, the tables turned. The most recent official release of Speech Dispatcher was made in the 
> > summer of 2008.  The developers began taking less and less of a role in the project.  The source code 
> > moved from a CVS repository to git in 2009.  During much of that year, active development took place in a 
> > repository hosted by Luke Yelavich.  Mr. Yelavich even produced several unofficial "release candidate" 
> > versions of Speech Dispatcher. Unfortunately, the official release process is stalled. In an effort to 
> > clarify the current status of the software, members of the community contacted Brailcom. Replies to these 
> > requests for information were somewhat non-committal.  In effect, Brailcom stated that they were 
> > interested in developing Speech Dispatcher, but they had no current plans.
> >
> > That, in short, is why we forked.  Members of the open-source accessibility community need and want an 
> > actively-developed speech framework. The OpenTTS project hopes to fulfill that need by carrying forward 
> > the vision set forth by Brailcom.
> >
> > The OpenTTS.org website is now live, although there is not much there at the moment. The site will be 
> > expanded in the near future to add areas for documentation, and feature specification tracking, to help 
> > developers better outline and indicate what the next release of OpenTTS will contain. You will also find a 
> > link to our mailing lists, where you can discuss OpenTTS development.
> >
> > We welcome all contributors from the community who wish to help us further develope the OpenTTS framework, 
> > and encourage any interested contributors to join the opentts-dev mailing list. To get more information on 
> > this list, or other lists relating to OpenTTS, please go to http://lists.opentts.org. We also especially 
> > welcome any Brailcom staff who wish to contribute to the project.
> >
> > I plan to announce the focus for OpenTTS development over the next 6 months very soon, and will do so on 
> > the opentts-dev mailing list (see above), and the website, so please stay tuned for more information. 
> > Should you have any questions, please feel free to subscribe to the opentts-users mailing list, and ask 
> > away. Commonly asked questions will be put up on the website for all to read.
> >
> > Finally, I'd like to thank Chris Brannon and William Hubbs for their hard work so far in helping get 
> > things off the ground, particularly with code cleanup and re-organisation. I would also like to thank all 
> > of those in the community who supported going ahead with the fork, you know who you are.
> >
> > I sincerely hope that from here on out, we can create a text to speech framework that can rival those 
> > available for proprietary operating systems, as well as creating a framework that all application 
> > developers feel comfortable working with. Text to speech is important for more than just those with a 
> > disability, it is very useful for many other people for many different tasks. Lets give them a reason to 
> > want to use it.
> >
> >
> > Luke Yelavich
> > OpenTTS project lead.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speechd mailing list
> > Speechd lists freebsoft org
> > http://lists.freebsoft.org/mailman/listinfo/speechd
> _______________________________________________
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