As posted to C.O.L.A.
Announcing the fourth alpha release of speakup v-0.04. Speakup is a screen review package for the Linux operating system. It allows you to hear all output directed to the console and move around the screen using the typical screen review functions. This is an alpha release which means it is by no means complete. It only supports the Double Talk internal synthesizer currently, but hopefully we will increase it's variety of synths in the not to distant future. It is quite usable in it's current incarnation though, with the blaring lack of cursor output support. That means in an editor it doesn't read each line as you move up and down the screen. It tracks the cursor so you just need to do a say current line but it doesn't do it all by itself. There is more to be said for cursor tracking and speaking than meets the ear at first glance. Speakup is a set of kernel patches which means you should have some experience with kernel compiling. It currently works on the Linux development kernels 2.1.125 and above. At this release we are at kernel 2.1.131. What's new in v-0.04? Read the Changes file included in the tar archive for full descriptions of my changes. Speakup now has the functions say from reading cursor line to bottom of screen. It has read from top of screen to reading cursor line, as well as read from left edge to reading cursor and guess what? Read from reading cursor to right edge of screen. I rewrote say next and previous word to wrap at the end of lines and added sound. Well, beeps anyway. Speakup also bleeps when the colour attribute changes as you move from character to character. Rewrote portions of various files to speed up operation and clean up some bugs. Oh, don't worry there's still plenty of bugs to squash! There is a mailing list for speakup which you are welcome to join if you are interested in it's on going development. You can subscribe to the mailing list by sending a message to listserv@braille.uwo.ca with a line in the body of the message like this: subscribe speakup (YourFirstName YourLastName) The mailing list is currently a very low traffic forum so you probably won't be overwhelmed with mail. The official speakup distribution point is ftp://ftp.braille.uwo.ca/pub/speakup. For now, I am just dropping the documents there as I write them. It will probably become more organized as time goes on but for now I just want to get information written and out there for public consumption as quickly as possible. Speakup is written by Kirk Reiser and Andy Berdan. It is covered by the GPL (GNU Public License). So, like I think that's about it. If you have any questions feel free to write me at kirk@braille.uwo.ca. If you have a DoubleTalk internal synth, we could really use your feedback. If you are just diing to get involved in a software project, boy do we have a bridge to sell you! 'grin' Kirk email: kirk@braille.uwo.ca phone: (519) 679-6845 (home)