Re: [orca-list] Vim, is it usable for us?

[Didier Spaier <didier slint fr>]

Hi again, Janina,

some responses in line below

Le 04/09/2020 à 06:31, Janina Sajka via orca-list a écrit :
> Ah, sorry about that! F7 is the old way. Most Linux distros moved the
> gui to F1 some 15 years ago--so long ago I no longer even mention the
> old way.
>
> I guess not all moved!

Good guess. Slackware and Slint still go this way.

More generally if you type startx from tty<n> the graphical environment
will start in tty<n+6>

This has an advantage for blind users: if the graphical environment
is stuck you can always press Ctrl+Alt+F<n> then Ctrl+c to kill it.

> Yes, fenrir gives you the choice of Speech-Dispatcher or sox. I've never
> had any luck with Fenrir plus Speech-Dispatcher. I've only ever used it
> with sox, and I haven't seen the issues you describe.

sox is used to play sounds (choice is between sox and gstreamer),
but speech-dispatcher is used as speech driver (other choices are
generic driver or espeak driver, they can be set independently.

For what it's worth here are the default settings in Slint:
http://slackware.uk/slint/x86_64/slint-14.2.1/source/fenrir/settings.conf

I just checked, fenrir does works on the console with the speech-dispatcher
driver, named speechdDriver in the configuration file.

> But, fenrir is a backup environment for me right now. Among other
> complaints, there's a bit too much lag between keypress and speech.

I don't observe this behavior. Are Storm or Chrys aware of this issue?
 
> So, I'm a Speakup user, and the interface between espeak and Speakup is
> espeakup. Yes, that's not a typo. These are three packages.
>
> Espeakup and Speech-Dispatcher don't get along well in my experience.
> Supposedly one can use the same audio device under pulseaudio with both
> of these, but I've never had much luck with that personally. Others on
> this list will have more hopeful stories there.

Three things:
1) On the console, speechd-up allows to use speakup with speech-dispatcher.
2) If you mean an issue keeping speech while switching back and forth
betwen console mode using speakup and with a graphical environment
using Orca, this works with proper and consistent settings using the
same audio device, in brie'f pulse is set to use dmix as mixer and alsa doesn't
redirect the output to pulse.

> Because of my age, my trajectory started with a command line Apple 2E in
> the early 1980's. But, that's just the difference in our ages, I think.
> I'd be surprised if any younger folks today start out on cli. That
> wouldn't make much sense, imo.

You won't beat me on that <smile>. I am 71 and my trajectory started at
the late 1970' with a  Data Terminals and Communications (DTC) Microfile,
Intel 8080-based machine with 64 kilobytes of RAM, and a custom OS, indeed
console only. Should I mention the Programma 101 that I used previously?
cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programma_101.

Cheers,

Didier