Hello Kirk HPR fans, Kirk is also a not-insignificant contributor to TTS and access tech for blind and VI users on Linux.
Unless I have this completely wrong, Kirk is the author, or at least very significant contributor to the absolutely ubiquitous SpeakUp *nix console-mode screen reader, written as kernel modules. Currently every Debian and Ubuntu version out there has SpeakUp modules compiled by default and setting up an accessible console is a breeze. At least for ASCII. For Unicode it's not so hot. It no doubt is also available by default in other Linux distros, but may not be compiled by default. If that is the case then building a new kernel including the SpeakUp modules is a piece of cake. SpeakUp even has available modules for many of the old hardware speech synthesisers such as the Dolphin Apollo, and the wonderful DECTalk. Kirk, thanks for your work. I too have not heard anything from Jonathan Duddington anywhere on the net for many long years and suspect your assessment may be correct. His contribution is difficult to quantify. espeak-ng, as I understand it, is a newer (hence ng=new generation) extension of eSpeak. I assume most changes are in the build system, which was always a bit hairy. I have made extensive use of eSpeak's ability to return PCM, and also in it's ability to return phonemes as a method of setting up 'fuzzy searches' in a database by adding a column containing the phonemes to a database table, after removing 'noise' from names and expanding/correcting common abbreviations. I've spent so many hours digging around in the source of eSpeak that it is a familiar friend. Mike On 16/04/2019 15:33, Kirk Reiser wrote: > Hey Mike et al: I aggree with claatu and others that an hpr episode on > espeak and it's wonders would be great. > > I'd also really like to hear an interview with Jonathan but unless I > miss my hunch he may no longer be with us. At least I haven't heard > anything out of him in years, hence the emphasis on espeak-ng. i'd > really like to be wrong on that front. > > Keep up the great work with the rasberry pi and turning out hpr shows. > > baffled > > On Tue, 16 Apr 2019, Klaatu wrote: > >> An HPR episode on this topic would be amazing. If you're too busy, i'd >> be happy to read your email into a recorder and release the show in >> your name. >> >> On 16 April 2019 1:10:29 PM NZST, Mike Ray <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> I got an error when I tried to post a comment about the latest podcast >>> about TTS. >>> >>> I don't have the error code now as I pasted it into an email to admin >>> and the email bounced. >>> >>> I suspect it was because my comment was too long, here it is: >>> >>> >>> Condescending and sarcastic. >>> >>> Oh isn't text-to-speech such a laugh? >>> >>> I get really, really annoyed when people criticise eSpeak. >>> >>> Anybody who complains about it sounding robotic obviously was not >>> around >>> thirty years ago. >>> >>> eSpeak's author, Jonathan Duddington, in my humble opinion, deserves a >>> Nobel prize. >>> >>> He has probably done more for blind and visually impaired computer >>> users, like me, all over the world, than any other individual or >>> organisation. >>> >>> In fact it is hard to name any single person who has had such an impact >>> on any group of users, apart perhaps from Linus Torvalds and Richard >>> Stallman. >>> >>> 1. It is Open Source. >>> 2. It is tiny, the memory footprint is small. >>> 3. It is snappy and can speak really fast, which is what we (blind >>> people) use when we get used to it, speeds that would make your hair >>> curl. >>> 4. It probably has more language support than any other free and Open >>> Source synthesiser. >>> 5. It can run in a mode where it can return rendered speech, in the >>> form >>> of PCM, to a calling program, so it can be used in other programs. I >>> don't think any other synth can do this. >>> 6. It can even return phonemes, a mode which I have used more than once >>> to provide a kind of 'fuzzy search' in a database. >>> >>> I regularly write and maintain library code, and application code, in >>> C, >>> C++ and/or Python, as well as Perl, and many of these code libraries >>> have in excess of 100k lines. >>> >>> Including, incidentally, a library which used a combination of eSpeak >>> and OMX to render TTS directly on the GPU of a Raspberry Pi when 'they' >>> broke the ALSA driver on the Pi, which made the speech stutter and >>> crash >>> the kernel, and refused to fix it for about four years. >>> >>> If I spent all my time bitching about how robotic eSpeak is I would >>> never get any work done. >>> >>> How much time do you spend when you should be writing code, worrying >>> about your wallpaper or the colour of your screen's background? >>> >>> Or do you just not notice it after a while? >>> >>> Well, after spending years writing code when I can't even see the Sun >>> when I stare directly at it, I can tell you I never notice what eSpeak >>> sounds like. >>> >>> I would probably be equally at home working with flite, festival, or >>> svox pico (which you missed). >>> >>> In addition, eSpeak is in use in NVDA, the free and Open Source Windows >>> screen reader which is currently giving the multi-hundreds of pounds >>> commercial offerings a real problem, and providing cash-strapped blind >>> users a chance. Although now the Windows Narrator is catching up, I >>> still prefer NVDA and eSpeak. >>> >>> MaryTTS is bloated. There was some excitement around it a few years >>> ago, but it has more or less faded away in the minds of the blind and >>> VI >>> community, since it is so bloated and, as far as I know, nobody has >>> ever >>> made a successful screen reader from it. >>> >>> Even if there was one, it would probably make a Raspberry Pi choke. >>> Whereas eSpeak runs snappily and happily on a 256k Raspberry Pi >>> first-gen. >>> >>> The 'holy trinity' of the Linux GUI, as far as blind and VI users are >>> concerned, is: >>> >>> 1. Orca, the GTK screen reader, written in Python, and a work of art. >>> 2. speech-dispatcher, written in C, a TTS 'server' program which Orca >>> connects to to send text and get speech from it. >>> 3. eSpeak, although there are speech-dispatcher modules also for flite >>> and festival, eSpeak is the best one IMHO. >>> >>> In the console: >>> >>> 1. SpeakUp, kernel modules including speakup and speakup_soft which >>> make >>> a console mode screen reader. >>> 2. espeakup, the SpeakUp to eSpeak connector. >>> 3. eSpeak. >>> >>> eSpeak is gold dust. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Michael A. Ray >>> Analyst/Programmer >>> Witley, Surrey, South-east UK >>> >>> "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but >>> when >>> there is nothing left to take away." -- A. de Saint-Exupery >>> >>> >>> https://cromarty.github.io/ >>> http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/ >>> http://www.raspberryvi.org/ >>> >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Hpr mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org >> -- Michael A. Ray Analyst/Programmer Witley, Surrey, South-east UK "Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." -- A. de Saint-Exupery https://cromarty.github.io/ http://eyesfreelinux.ninja/ http://www.raspberryvi.org/ _______________________________________________ Hpr mailing list [email protected] http://hackerpublicradio.org/mailman/listinfo/hpr_hackerpublicradio.org
