Audio server(s) support in Speech Dispatcher (Re: No output!)

[Tomas Cerha]

>>As for replacing the Flite sound library in Speech Dispatcher
>>with something better, I thing the NAS library looks good,
>>but it would require users to install yet an additional application.
>>If this is not what we want, I'd recommend to remain waiting
>>for something suitable (liba(i)o is not currently).
> 
> 
> I don't think installing applications is a problem.  For most people,
> who use RedHat, Debian, etc., then installing another application just
> means typing
> 
> <whatever-command> <program-name>

Yes, but for people who are currently using ESD it might be a problem since ESD
and NAS can't be used simultaneously.  And migration to NAS requires some
effort...  And there might be applications that don't have NAS support at all.

But as we need something now and ESD seems not to be suitable, we probably have
to force people to replace ESD with something suitable.  However I would not
require NAS, since nowadays there are many sondcards with hardware support for
multiple inputs on one DSP device, so we should also support direct DSP output.

I think there are two possibilities:

* using an interface library that is able at least of NAS and DSP output (maybe
the NAS library?).

* using direct DSP output and relying on audiooss.

Than the message to the user would be:  Either use a souncard with multiple
channels or use NAS.  ESD is unfortunately not suitable.

But I also don't have a clear idea how might this be influenced by ALSA...

Best Regards,

Tomas.