Re: [orca-list] Proposal: Remove the emacspeak suppport

["Albert Sten-Clanton" <albert e sten_clanton verizon net>]

Since I may be able to get a new computer with a serial port, I have no wish
to see support for hardware synths removed.  Yes, it would be far better to
have new drivers that make use of usb ports.  In the six years or so during
which I've had a TripleTalk LT, however, the only thing I've been able to
use the usb port for was power:  no drivers have been written in that time,
it seems, and I dare expect none unless I learn to write my own.  Software
speech is indeed cheaper and more portable, but when it gets screwed up, as
mine did at times, having hardware speech enabled me to fix the problem.

It could be that we can live without hardware synths for Orca as long as
Speakup continues to work with them.  (I've only used software speech with
Orca to this point.) That, of course, requires that Speakup be working, and
it apparently doesn't work on all distros at this point.  That, at least, is
my understanding.

Al 

-----Original Message-----
From: orca-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On
Behalf Of Thomas Ward
Sent: Wednesday, January 04, 2012 10:05 PM
To: Joanmarie Diggs
Cc: orca-list gnome org
Subject: Re: [orca-list] Proposal: Remove the emacspeak suppport

Hi,

I for one feel that the Emacspeak driver  support should be removed.
My primary reason for saying this is that very few computer users actually
own and use a hardware speech synth like a Dectalk, Doubeltalk, Speakout,
etc these days. A software synth solution like Espeak, Cepstral, or
Voxin/Eloquence  is far more portable and cheaper to own and use. Plus on
top of that most older hardware synths are not even compatible with a modern
PC anyway.

For example, I owned three different hardware synths and can't use any of
them on any of my computers. I have a Dectalk PC, but because it uses an ISA
bus it won't work on a modern desktop board that have PCI bus slots. I have
a Dectalk Express but being a serial device it won't work on either of my
laptops because they only have USB 2.0 ports. I tried a couple of different
USB to serial adapters and neither worked.
Finally, I still have my Braille N' Speak 640K, but again same problem as
the Dectalk Express. No serial ports and a USB to serial adapter doesn't
appear to work with speechbox mode.

In conclusion hardware support for older synths is getting less and less
viable, and the numbr of users still using them is rapidly dropping off in
favor of ESpeak, Eloquence, or something else. So continuing support for the
Emacspeak synth drivers really is unnecessary at this point. I feel we could
clean it out and use speech-dispatcher for all our synth needs.

After all, if we want hardware synth support then we would be better served
by writing all new drivers for the current hardware devices. I know there is
a newer USB Dectalk Express around which should replace the old serial
model. The Trippletalk PCI and USB models are also good candidates for new
drivers.I'd much rather see effort put towards supporting USB and PCI based
hardware through speech-dispatcher rather than hanging onto old ISA and
serial hardware synth drivers.

On 1/4/12, Joanmarie Diggs <jdiggs igalia com> wrote:
> Hey guys.
>
> Back in June [1] I asked you all if anyone was using Orca with 
> Emacspeak, and as an aside suggested that it would be great if we 
> could have support for hardware synthesizers in speechdispatcher.
>
> What resulted from my question was more of a discussion than a 
> concrete consensus. But the feeling I got from that discussion was 
> that we have people using Orca and people using Emacspeak, but we do 
> not have people using hardware synths with Orca via Emacspeak.
>
> If these is indeed the case, and given the plans to make presentation 
> modalities "pluginable," having old cruft around which would have to 
> be converted is more trouble than it's worth *if* it's honestly not 
> something anyone needs.
>
> So... Discussion is, as always, encouraged. But at this point it is a 
> proposal on the table for which I'm requesting a vote.
>
> Thanks as always, guys!
> --joanie
>
> [1] 
> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/orca-list/2011-June/thread.html#00085
>
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The manual is at
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Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org Find out how to
help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp