Speakup: Can Speakup distinguish terminals?

[Kirk Reiser]

Hi Hynek:  Let's see if I can remember all your questions first we'll
do the terminal question proposed  here.  Speakup has no real notion
of what console you are on other than a separate review structure is
used for each console.  So if you turn speakup off in console 4 let's
say with the speakup-keypad-enter combination then the output of that
console stays off until you specifically turn it back on.  With that
key combination you still have review functions so you can move around
the screen reviewing what's there.  If you use the prtscr (print
screen) key speakup is totally turned off in the current console and
there is no output review or otherwhise until the key is hit again to
turn speakup back on.  So you need only turn speakup off once in any
console you wish to not have speech output in.  You can also use the
/proc/speakup system for various aspects of speakup including turning
it on and off.

Tone and frequency settings mean different things to different synth
manufacturers.  They are synonymous for most synths but in the case of
the doubleTalk tone is the bigness or depth/quality of the voice while
frequency is a two setting command which drops or raises the tone
setting by a specific amount.  Obviously not all synths support all
commands so you basically just use the ones you have access to
software synth or hardware synth and remove the structure members for
command options your synth does not support or just ignore the
sequences when intercepted.  I have them included by default because I
have written tuxtalk to support a number of the commands such as
volume, tone, pitch, rate and punctuation levels.

The init string is sent upon synth loading and then after the prtscr
key is toggled back on to reset any settings which may have been lost
while a hardware synth was turned off.  In the case of most hardware
synths the init string is also sent after a synth is turned back on
after being off for a while with speakup still turned on.  With
hardware synths if the synth is turned off or removed speakup will
notice after a few keys have been typed and turn it's output off so it
needs to be re-initialized when the synth is connected once again.
The key sequence speakup-kpad-enter checks to see if the synth has
been turned off and then sends the init string if it can talk to the
synth once again when issued.

I'm not sure if I answered all your questions or not, if I missed any
please re-ask.

  Kirk

-- 

Kirk Reiser                             The Computer Braille Facility
e-mail: address@hidden          University of Western Ontario
phone: (519) 661-3061