Thursday, April 30, 2015

Announcing Emacspeak 42.0 (AnswerDog)

Emacspeak 42.0—AnswerDog—Unleashed!

1 Emacspeak-42.0 (AnswerDog) Unleashed!

** For Immediate Release:

San Jose, Calif., (May 1, 2015) Emacspeak: Redefining Accessibility In The Era Of Internet Computing –Zero cost of upgrades/downgrades makes priceless software affordable!

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) --http://emacspeak.sf.net– announces the immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 42.0 (AnswerDog) –a powerful audio desktop for leveraging today's evolving data, social and service-oriented Internet cloud.

1.1 Investors Note:

With several prominent tweeters expanding coverage of #emacspeak, NASDOG: ESPK has now been consistently trading over the social net at levels close to that once attained by DogCom high-fliers—and as of May 2015 is trading at levels close to that achieved by once better known stocks in the tech sector.

1.2 What Is It?

Emacspeak is a fully functional audio desktop that provides complete eyes-free access to all major 32 and 64 bit operating environments. By seamlessly blending live access to all aspects of the Internet such as Web-surfing, blogging, social computing and electronic messaging into the audio desktop, Emacspeak enables speech access to local and remote information with a consistent and well-integrated user interface. A rich suite of task-oriented tools provides efficient speech-enabled access to the evolving service-oriented social Internet cloud.

1.3 Major Enhancements:

  • Emacs EWW: Consume Web content efficiently. 🕷
  • Updated Info manual 🕮
  • SoX integration for generating auditory feedback ℗
  • Speech-enabled Elfeed, an Emacs Feed Reader 🗞
  • CSound generated 3d Auditory Icons ⟀
  • Audacious — An Audio Workbench using SoX 🝧
  • Audio presets for MPlayer using Ladspa filters ♮
  • emacspeak-url-templates: Smart Web access. ♅
  • Integrated TuneIn Radio search, browse and play 📻
  • emacspeak-websearch.el Find things fast. ♁
  • Calibre integration for searching and viewing epub 📚 📔
  • Complete anything via company integration ∁
  • Emacs 24.4: Supports all new features in Emacs 24.4. 🌚
  • And a lot more than wil fit this margin. …

1.4 Establishing Liberty, Equality And Freedom:

Never a toy system, Emacspeak is voluntarily bundled with all major Linux distributions. Though designed to be modular, distributors have freely chosen to bundle the fully integrated system without any undue pressure—a documented success for the integrated innovation embodied by Emacspeak. As the system evolves, both upgrades and downgrades continue to be available at the same zero-cost to all users. The integrity of the Emacspeak codebase is ensured by the reliable and secure Linux platform used to develop and distribute the software.

Extensive studies have shown that thanks to these features, users consider Emacspeak to be absolutely priceless. Thanks to this wide-spread user demand, the present version remains priceless as ever—it is being made available at the same zero-cost as previous releases.

At the same time, Emacspeak continues to innovate in the area of eyes-free social interaction and carries forward the well-established Open Source tradition of introducing user interface features that eventually show up in luser environments.

On this theme, when once challenged by a proponent of a crash-prone but well-marketed mousetrap with the assertion "Emacs is a system from the 70's", the creator of Emacspeak evinced surprise at the unusual candor manifest in the assertion that it would take popular idiot-proven interfaces until the year 2070 to catch up to where the Emacspeak audio desktop is today. Industry experts welcomed this refreshing breath of Courage Certainty and Clarity (CCC) at a time when users are reeling from the Fear Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) unleashed by complex software systems backed by even more convoluted press releases.

1.5 Independent Test Results:

Independent test results have proven that unlike some modern (and not so modern) software, Emacspeak can be safely uninstalled without adversely affecting the continued performance of the computer. These same tests also revealed that once uninstalled, the user stopped functioning altogether. Speaking with Aster Labrador, the creator of Emacspeak once pointed out that these results re-emphasize the user-centric design of Emacspeak; "It is the user –and not the computer– that stops functioning when Emacspeak is uninstalled!".

1.5.1 Note from Aster,Bubbles and Tilden:

UnDoctored Videos Inc. is looking for volunteers to star in a video demonstrating such complete user failure.

1.6 Obtaining Emacspeak:

Emacspeak can be downloaded from GitHub –see https://github.com/tvraman/emacspeak you can visit Emacspeak on the WWW at http://emacspeak.sf.net. You can subscribe to the emacspeak mailing list emacspeak@cs.vassar.edu by sending mail to the list request address emacspeak-request@cs.vassar.edu. The Emacspeak Blog is a good source for news about recent enhancements and how to use them.

The latest development snapshot of Emacspeak is always available via Git from GitHub at Emacspeak GitHub .

1.7 History:

Emacspeak 42.0 while moving to GitHub from Google Code continues to innovate in the areas of auditory user interfaces and efficient, light-weight Internet access. Emacspeak 41.0 continues to improve upon the desire to provide not just equal, but superior access — technology when correctly implemented can significantly enhance the human ability. Emacspeak 40.0 goes back to Web basics by enabling efficient access to large amounts of readable Web content. Emacspeak 39.0 continues the Emacspeak tradition of increasing the breadth of user tasks that are covered without introducing unnecessary bloatware. Emacspeak 38.0 is the latest in a series of award-winning releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak 37.0 continues the tradition of delivering robust software as reflected by its code-name. Emacspeak 36.0 enhances the audio desktop with many new tools including full EPub support — hence the name EPubDog. Emacspeak 35.0 is all about teaching a new dog old tricks — and is aptly code-named HeadDog in honor of our new Press/Analyst contact. emacspeak-34.0 (AKA Bubbles) established a new beach-head with respect to rapid task completion in an eyes-free environment. Emacspeak-33.0 AKA StarDog brings unparalleled cloud access to the audio desktop. Emacspeak 32.0 AKA LuckyDog continues to innovate via open technologies for better access. Emacspeak 31.0 AKA TweetDog — adds tweeting to the Emacspeak desktop. Emacspeak 30.0 AKA SocialDog brings the Social Web to the audio desktop—you cant but be social if you speak! Emacspeak 29.0—AKAAbleDog—is a testament to the resilliance and innovation embodied by Open Source software—it would not exist without the thriving Emacs community that continues to ensure that Emacs remains one of the premier user environments despite perhaps also being one of the oldest. Emacspeak 28.0—AKA PuppyDog—exemplifies the rapid pace of development evinced by Open Source software. Emacspeak 27.0—AKA FastDog—is the latest in a sequence of upgrades that make previous releases obsolete and downgrades unnecessary. Emacspeak 26—AKA LeadDog—continues the tradition of introducing innovative access solutions that are unfettered by the constraints inherent in traditional adaptive technologies. Emacspeak 25 —AKA ActiveDog —re-activates open, unfettered access to online information. Emacspeak-Alive —AKA LiveDog —enlivens open, unfettered information access with a series of live updates that once again demonstrate the power and agility of open source software development. Emacspeak 23.0 – AKA Retriever—went the extra mile in fetching full access. Emacspeak 22.0 —AKA GuideDog —helps users navigate the Web more effectively than ever before. Emacspeak 21.0 —AKA PlayDog —continued the Emacspeak tradition of relying on enhanced productivity to liberate users. Emacspeak-20.0 —AKA LeapDog —continues the long established GNU/Emacs tradition of integrated innovation to create a pleasurable computing environment for eyes-free interaction. emacspeak-19.0 –AKA WorkDog– is designed to enhance user productivity at work and leisure. Emacspeak-18.0 –code named GoodDog– continued the Emacspeak tradition of enhancing user productivity and thereby reducing total cost of ownership. Emacspeak-17.0 –code named HappyDog– enhances user productivity by exploiting today's evolving WWW standards. Emacspeak-16.0 –code named CleverDog– the follow-up to SmartDog– continued the tradition of working better, faster, smarter. Emacspeak-15.0 –code named SmartDog–followed up on TopDog as the next in a continuing a series of award-winning audio desktop releases from Emacspeak Inc. Emacspeak-14.0 –code named TopDog–was the first release of this millennium. Emacspeak-13.0 –codenamed YellowLab– was the closing release of the 20th. century. Emacspeak-12.0 –code named GoldenDog– began leveraging the evolving semantic WWW to provide task-oriented speech access to Webformation. Emacspeak-11.0 –code named Aster– went the final step in making Linux a zero-cost Internet access solution for blind and visually impaired users. Emacspeak-10.0 –(AKA Emacspeak-2000) code named WonderDog– continued the tradition of award-winning software releases designed to make eyes-free computing a productive and pleasurable experience. Emacspeak-9.0 –(AKA Emacspeak 99) code named BlackLab– continued to innovate in the areas of speech interaction and interactive accessibility. Emacspeak-8.0 –(AKA Emacspeak-98++) code named BlackDog– was a major upgrade to the speech output extension to Emacs.

Emacspeak-95 (code named Illinois) was released as OpenSource on the Internet in May 1995 as the first complete speech interface to UNIX workstations. The subsequent release, Emacspeak-96 (code named Egypt) made available in May 1996 provided significant enhancements to the interface. Emacspeak-97 (Tennessee) went further in providing a true audio desktop. Emacspeak-98 integrated Internetworking into all aspects of the audio desktop to provide the first fully interactive speech-enabled WebTop.

1.8 About Emacspeak:

Originally based at Cornell (NY) http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman –home to Auditory User Interfaces (AUI) on the WWW– Emacspeak is now maintained on GitHub --https://github.com/tvraman/emacspeak —and Sourceforge —http://emacspeak.sf.net. The system is mirrored world-wide by an international network of software archives and bundled voluntarily with all major Linux distributions. On Monday, April 12, 1999, Emacspeak became part of the Smithsonian's Permanent Research Collection on Information Technology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The Emacspeak mailing list is archived at Vassar –the home of the Emacspeak mailing list– thanks to Greg Priest-Dorman, and provides a valuable knowledge base for new users.

1.9 Press/Analyst Contact: Tilden Labrador

Going forward, Tilden acknowledges his exclusive monopoly on setting the direction of the Emacspeak Audio Desktop, and promises to exercise this freedom to innovate and her resulting power responsibly (as before) in the interest of all dogs.

**About This Release:


Windows-Free (WF) is a favorite battle-cry of The League Against Forced Fenestration (LAFF). –see http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f3800/msjudgex.htm for details on the ill-effects of Forced Fenestration.

CopyWrite )C( Aster and Hubbell Labrador. All Writes Reserved. HeadDog (DM), LiveDog (DM), GoldenDog (DM), BlackDog (DM) etc., are Registered Dogmarks of Aster, Hubbell and Tilden Labrador. All other dogs belong to their respective owners.

Author: T.V Raman

Created: 2015-04-30 Thu 15:35

Emacs 25.0.50.1 (Org mode 8.2.10)

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Saturday, April 25, 2015

Emacspeak 3.0: Released 20 Years Ago Today!

twenty-years-after

1 Emacspeak Was Released Twenty Years Ago Today

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Emacspeak was released 20 years ago on April 25, 1995 with this announcement. The Emacspeak mailing list itself did not exist in its present form — note that the original announcement talks about a mailing list at DEC CRL. When Greg started the mailing list at Vassar, we seeded the list from some/all of the messages from the archive for the mailing list at DEC.e

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

HowTo: Log Speech Server Output To Aid In Developing TTS Servers

HowTo: Log TTS Server Output To Aid In TTS Server Development

1 HowTo: Log TTS Server Output To Aid In TTS Server Development

This is mostly of interest to developers of Emacspeak speech servers. This article outlines how one can log TTS server output to a file. The loggeds record all commands send by Emacspeak to the TTS server. It is best to generate the logs in an Emacs session that is separate from the Emacs session where you are developping your code. This keeps the logs short, and makes isolating problems much easier.

1.1 How It Works

The emacspeak/servers directory now contains log_<tts-name> servers for the various supported speech servers. When selected, these log-speech servers produce no speech output; instead, they output the speech server commands received from Emacspeak to a file in /tmp named tts-log-$$. Once you're done logging, you can examine this file from the primary Emacs session.

1.2 Typical Workflow

Assume you want to see the speech-server commands sent by Emacs when you perform a specific action, in this instance, pressing C-e m to execute command emacspeak-speak-mode-line.

  1. In a separate Linux console or X-Window, launch Emacs with Emacspeak loaded — this is separate from your primary Emacs session.
  2. In this Emacs session, use C-e d d (command dtk-select-server) and select log-<tts-name> as the speech server, where tts-name corresponds to the speech engine you're testing.
  3. Emacspeak will now start the logging server, and fall silent; all commands sent by Emacspeak to the speech-server will be logged to a file in /tmp.
  4. Press C-e m – to produce the log output you want to see.
  5. Use command _emacspeak-emergency-tts-restart to get speech back.
  6. Open a dired buffer on /tmp, press s to sort files by date, and find your generated log output at the top of the list.
  7. Note: It is useful to configure your default speech engine via Custom – see user option emacspeak-emergency-tts-server. It provides a quick-fire means to get speech back if you ever switch to a speech-server that fails for some reason.

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Date: <2015-04-15 Wed>

Author: raman

Created: 2015-04-15 Wed 17:33

Emacs 25.0.50.1 (Org mode 8.2.10)

Validate