Re: [orca-list] Built in Controls for Espeak Pretty Please with Sugar, cheeries, whatever it takes on top :)

[Christopher Chaltain <chaltain gmail com>]

I don't think it deteriorated into a flame war. I don't agree that 
adding it wouldn't hurt the project in any way. If Joanie were to work 
on this then it would mean there were other features and fixes in Orca 
she wasn't working on. I agree it's a good data point to get the pulse 
of the community, but in my experience, not too many people say "no" 
when the question is would you like some new feature. The more 
interesting question is given the things Joanie and other developers 
could be working on, where would you prioritize this request?

On 08/28/2014 12:24 AM, Storm Dragon wrote:
> Howdy,
> This, like every other issue that is raised here, was only meant to get
> a yes or no vote. It shouldn't disintegrate into a spame/flame/I'm way
> too busy to care war. Everyone is busy, we all have lives, and yet, most
> of us still manage to get things done on the projects we manage. I'm
> sure Joanie is very capable of making her own decisions ragarding what
> to work on with Orca, and that if this is something the community wants,
> as seems to be the case (something like 5 yes to 2 no so far), she will
> at least consider it. It is something I, and several others, really
> would like, and adding it would not hurt the project in any way, and
> would fix a lot of problems cause due to the lack of speech-dispatcher's
> abilities.
> On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 03:02:13PM +1000, Luke Yelavich wrote:
> > On Thu, Aug 28, 2014 at 01:48:04PM AEST, Storm Dragon wrote:
> > > Howdy,
> > > Nearly every other screen reader has multiple ways to interact with
> > > speech. NVDA has a built in espeak, and the other nonfree readers
> > > have synths as well, I think most have a built in Eloquence. Never
> > > once, have I heard any of those users complain that their screen
> > > reader has entirely too many ways to talk. Also, as far as I am
> > > aware, no one has ever said "Man, I really wish my screen reader had
> > > to jump through layer after layer of junk to speak."
> >
> > Just because other screen readers interface directly with a speech
> > synthesizer doesn't mean Orca should. Orca certainly has the
> > modularity to allow for different speech systems to be supported,
> > including a direct eSpeak driver, but given speech-dispatcher is the
> > only TTS backend supported, that may very well change in the future.
> >
> > > Speech-dispatcher is ok, for minimal usage, but it crashes with alsa,
> > > has
> > > odd puctuation inconsistancies, and is slow as molasses. The last time
> > > development of speech-dispatcher even reached a snail's pace was when
> > > open-speech or whatever was called was made because people weree
> > > frustrated
> > > with the lack of progress made by speech-dispatcher. I'm not even
> > > asking to
> > > replace spd. Let the people who like it use it. That's one thing that
> > > makes
> > > Linux rock, there's usually more than one way to do things. for some
> > > people,
> > > speech-dispatcher may be fine. for me, it's falling rather short.
> >
> > Yes, speech-dispatcher has some annoying issues that need
> > attentionnnnnn. Nobody is denying that, not even me. There are many
> > things that niggle me about speech-dispatcher too. However I have not
> > yet been able to find the time and desire to want to sit down and try
> > and fix them. Perhaps since there are issues with speech-dispatcher
> > that really annoy you, you could consider getting involved and help
> > properly identify sed issues, and maybe even fix them.
> >
> > > Also, with a reliable way to deliver speech, speech-dispatcher can
> > > drag on it its currently abysmally slow progress, and we can have
> > > fully working espeak. Speech-dispatcher has been around and for a
> > > long time now, and there still not full support for espeak... No way
> > > to use variants, and you have to hack it to use freasonably fast espeak.
> >
> > The only reason speech-dispatcher's development progress is abysmally
> > slow is because people cannot currently find the time to work on it.
> >
> > For those of you who want a direct eSpeak orca driver, you will
> > probably have to find someone to write the driver, probably someone
> > who wants the same thing as you do. I am sure Joanie could, but I
> > think she has her hands full with more time consuming stuff, such as
> > keeping up with GNOME's developments, and keeping up with the ever
> > changing nature of the web and ensuring users have a sane browsing
> > experience with Firefox.
> >
> > As for speech-dispatcher, the issues you have raised are well known,
> > and need to be addressed. When time allows, either myself or someone
> > else will work on fixing Speech-dispatcher not supporting eSpeak synth
> > variants, and fixing the ALSA driver. Given I work on
> > speech-dispatcher in my spare time, and given I also have a life and
> > interests outside of my full time job, I can give no ETA as to when
> > these issues will be addressed.
> >
> > Luke
> > _______________________________________________
> > orca-list mailing list
> > orca-list gnome org
> > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> > The manual is at
> > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> > Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> orca-list mailing list
> orca-list gnome org
> https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> The manual is at http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp

--
Christopher (CJ)
chaltain at Gmail