one step closer to the possibility of linux on the bn/vn

[Gregory Nowak]

Hello everyone.

This list has been dormant for a very long time, so I thought I'd post on a somewhat significant development.

One of the problems with porting the linux kernel to the bn/vn was the question of speech.
Currently, under keysoft, the keynote software speech is used through the sound chip.
In the linux world right now, there don't seem to be many viable options for using a screen reader with a software synth for speech output.
The only options I know of are emacs speak (if you want to call it a screen reader) with I believe the flite speech engine, and another package which is called yaser I think, that also uses flite if I'm not mistaken.

Recently however, 2 projects working independently have surfaced, which aim to make it possible to use the speakup screen reader  with the festival tts engine.

Since speakup is the screen reader that I and many others use, this is very good news. 
>From what I understand, both projects are in the beta stage, but people on the speakup list who have gotten the code from one of the projects to work, say that it is good, and certainly has potential.
Speakup differs from the other screen readers I mentioned, in that it is part of the linux kernel, where as the other 2 are user space programs, one of which relies on the emacs editor.

Also, I believe the braillenote runs on the Arm processor, and I believe someone on the speakup list stated that festival has been ported to the arm architecture.

If someone is interested, I'll dig up the urls for the 2 speakup/festival projects, and send them along, or someone else may do so.

Well, that's it for now. Thanks for reading.

Greg