Emacspeak In The Age Of Cloud Computing

1. Executive Summary

Emacspeak has supported Cloud Computing since 1995, i.e., long before the term was invented. I have used Emacs with Emacspeak running on remote servers (called cloud-top in the rest of this article) since that time, with a local speech server on my client machine providing spoken feedback. The underlying ssh-based scripts have changed over time; this article documents what I have been using for the last 7 years or more. As with everything else Linux, you should not use this without understanding how it works. All of the relevant code is checked into GitHub, but if you use it without understanding, you are likely to get 2 for the price of 1😀.

2. The Basics

1. Emacspeak produces all spoken and non-spoken feedback via a speech server — see Emacspeak: Beautiful Code for the detailed architecture overview.
2. This server runs as a separate process and can either run locally i.e. on the machine running emacs; it can also run remotely, e.g. your laptop from which you login to your cloud-top.
3. Note the local and remote terminology in the above — to Emacspeak, the machine where Emacs runs is the local machine, so your machine in the cloud is local to Emacspeak.
4. Consequently, the machine from where you SSH to the cloud, a laptop, a Raspberry Pi, or in a future a tin-can that you use as a client is remote to emacspeak.

3. How It Works

1. When you start Emacs with Emacspeak loaded, Emacs starts the speech-server as the first step in the emacspeak startup. normally this starts the local server for your prefered TTS engine.
2. See the emacspeak manual for how this speech-server is determined.
3. When running Emacspeak on a cloud-top, this local speech server is just a simple shell script that connects to a local port — by default 2222.
4. When you connect to your cloud-top via SSH, you first reverse port forward port 2222 from the cloud-top back to your client. This causes data sent to port 2222 on the cloud-top by Emacs to show up on port 2222 on the local machine where your speech server is listening.
5. With that reverse port forwarding in place and assuming that espeak is your TTS engine, running the speech-server cloud-espeak on the cloud-top connects back to your client to produce spoken output.
6. For the previous step to work, something (or someone) needs to be listening on port 2222 on your client.

7. So you need to start the relevant speech server on your client before you ssh to your cloud-top — in the case of espeak, this is ssh-espeak.

   See directory bash-utils in your emacspeak Git checkout for the relevant Bash scripts.

4. Workflow

Here is what the workflow looks like, again, use this only if you have read and understood the previous section. SeeBash Utils for the scripts mentioned below. Everything below assumes a Bash Shell.

On your cloud-top, specify the speech-server to use by running

export DTK_PROGRAM=cloud-espeak

You can put the above in your .bash_profile on your cloud-top.

On your client device, run

. <emacspeak_dir>/bash-utils/remote

This need be done only once per interactive shell.It defines bash functions remote and rtts.

Next, run Bash function remote defined in the script you just loaded.

remote host.example.com  speech-server espeak

This does the following:

1. Starts a local speech server for the TTS engine espeak.
2. Opens an SSH session to the cloud-top host.example.com.
3. Plays a musical chime (using sox) to cue completion.
4. Depending on your SSH setup, you may or may not need to type your ssh password at this point; avoiding having to type a password is beyond the perview of this article, consult the SSH manual pages.
5. Now, run Emacs on the cloud-top. Assuming that you have updated your Emacs initialization to load Emacspeak, this will get Emacspeak running on the cloud-top talking on your client.
6. Note that typically, you should run something like screen on the cloud-top and run Emacs within that screen session; this will let you persist a running Emacs across multiple login/logout.

5. Experience On A Well-Configured Setup

On a well-configured setup, you typically need only do:

1. Run the bash function that starts the local TTS server, and then connects to the cloud-top via SSH with reverse-port forwarding active.
2. Assuming there is an Emacs session running under screen at the remote end, it'll start talking on your local client.

Announcing Emacspeak 55.0—CalmDog!

The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work. – Donald E. Knuth

1. For Immediate Release:

San Jose, CA, (Nov 24, 2021)

1.1. Emacspeak 55.0 (CalmDog) Unleashed! 🦮

— Making Accessible Computing Effortless!

Advancing Accessibility In The Age Of User-Aware Interfaces — Zero cost of Ownership makes priceless software Universally affordable!

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) — http://github.com/tvraman/emacspeak announces immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 55.0 (CalmDog) 🦮 — a powerful audio desktop that leverages today's evolving Data, Social and Assistant-Oriented Internet cloud to enable working efficiently and effectively from anywhere!

2. 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 is trading at levels close to that achieved by once better known stocks in the tech sector.

3. 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 ubiquitous assistance, Web-surfing, blogging, remote software development, social computing and electronic messaging into the audio desktop, Emacspeak enables spoken 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 assistant-oriented social Internet cloud.

4. Major Enhancements:

1. Speech-enable Emacs Application Framework Ÿ
2. Updated Soundscapes 🔊
3. Updated Auditory Icons 🎧
4. Updated Transient Support 𝥍
5. Speech-Enabled CalibreDB 📚

6. External Browsers From EWW 🕸

   — And a lot more than will fit this margin. … 🗞

Note: This version requires emacs-27.1 or later.

5. 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 and the underlying GIT versioning software used to develop and distribute the system.

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 free of cost 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 Assistance and 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.

6. 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!”.

6.1. Note from Aster,Bubbles and Tilden:

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

7. 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@emacspeak.org. 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 at GitHub.

8. History:

• Emacspeak 55.0 (CalmDog) attempts to be as calm as Tilden.
• Emacspeak 54.0 (EZDog) learns to take it easy from Tilden.
• Emacspeak 53.0 (EfficientDog) focuses on efficiency.
• Emacspeak 52.0 (WorkAtHomeDog) makes working remotely a pleasurable experience.
• Bigger and more powerful than any smart assistAnt, AssistDog provides

instant access to the most relevant information at all times.

• Emacspeak 50.0 (SageDog) embraces the wisdom of stability as opposed to rapid change and the concomitant creation of bugs.🚭: Naturally Intelligent (NI)™ at how information is spoken, Emacspeak

is entirely free of Artificial Ingredients (AI)™.

• Emacspeak 49.0 (WiseDog) leverages the wisdom gleaned from earlier releases to provide an enhanced auditory experience.
• Emacspeak 48.0 (ServiceDog) builds on earlier releases to provide continued end-user value.
• Emacspeak 47.0 (GentleDog) goes the next step in being helpful while letting users learn and grow.
• Emacspeak 46.0 (HelpfulDog) heralds the coming of Smart Assistants.
• Emacspeak 45.0 (IdealDog) is named in recognition of Emacs' excellent integration with various programming language environments — thanks to this, Emacspeak is the IDE of choice for eyes-free software engineering.
• Emacspeak 44.0 continues the steady pace of innovation on the audio desktop.
• Emacspeak 43.0 brings even more end-user efficiency by leveraging the ability to spatially place multiple audio streams to provide timely auditory feedback.
• 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 on 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 on 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 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.

9. 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. 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 Emacspeak Mail Archive –the home of the Emacspeak mailing list– thanks to Greg Priest-Dorman, and provides a valuable knowledge base for new users.

10. 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, Hubbell and Tilden 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.

Generalize Snarf Tool: How The General Can Be Simpler Than The Specific

1 Executive Summary

The previous article detailed the implementation of a simple function that lets you snarf the contents within a pair of delimiters. That version handled a set of generic delimiters, and errored out if point was not on one of the pre-defined delimiters.

This article shows how that solution can be generalized to cases where point is not on a pre-defined delimiter; in the process, it weighs the pros and cons of usability vs over-generality and shows an implementation that attempts to strike a good balance.

2 The Updated Implementation

(defun snarf-sexp (&optional delete)
  "Snarf the contents between delimiters at point.
Optional interactive prefix arg deletes it."
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((orig (point))
        (pair nil)
        (pairs ;;; We keep predefined pairs for usability:
         '((?< ?>)
           (?\[ ?\])
           (?\( ?\))
           (?{ ?})
           (?\" ?\")
           (?' ?')
           (?` ?')
           (?| ?|)
           (?* ?*)
           (?/ ?/)
           (?- ?-)
           (?_ ?_)
           (?~ ?~)))
        (char (char-after))
        (stab nil))
    (setq pair ;;; But we read a close delimiter  for the general case
          (or (assq char pairs) ;;; Predefined delimiter
              (list char (read-char "Close Delimiter: ")))) ;;; Generality!
    (setq stab (copy-syntax-table))
    (with-syntax-table stab
      (cond
       ((= (cl-first pair) (cl-second pair))
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-first pair) "\"" ) 
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-second pair) "\"" ))
       (t
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-first pair) "(")
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-second pair) ")")))
      (save-excursion
        (forward-sexp)
        (cond
         (delete
          (kill-region (1+ orig) (1- (point))))
         (t (kill-ring-save (1+ orig) (1- (point)))))))))

3 Key Takeaways

1. The generalized implementation no longer throws an error if point is not on a pre-defined delimiter.
2. Instead, it generalizes the implementation to read the close delimiter from the keyboard if char at point is not in the pre-defined list.
3. We could generalize further by entirely dropping the pre-defined delimiters, but that would hurt usability in the common case where the user would always have to specify the close delimiter.
4. Note that usability here is not merely to reduce a keystroke; it's more to reduce the cognitive load on the user with respect to having to think about the close delimiter in the common case.

Snarfing String Within Delimiters With One Defun

1 Executive Summary

I found that I frequently needed to snarf a string enclosed within delimiters, e.g., URLs in email messages <url>, bolded, italics and other styled text in org-mode etc. I first tried package ciel but found that it did not handle all the delimiters I wanted. However looking into it further revealed that emacs had all the tools needed to reduce the task to a single defun!

2 The Solution

Here is the solution I implemented at emacspeak-wizards-snarf-sexp. invoking this command with point on the opening delimiter snarfs the enclosed string into the kill-ring; an optional prefix arg clears it as well. The code below is the same as in the Emacspeak project, but with emacspeak-specific calls removed:

(defun snarf-sexp-contents (&optional delete)
  "Snarf the contents between delimiters at point.
Optional interactive prefix arg deletes it."
  (interactive "P")
  (let ((orig (point))
        (pair nil)
        (pairs ;;; The delimiter pairs:
         '((?< ?>)
           (?\[ ?\])
           (?\( ?\))
           (?{ ?})
           (?\" ?\")
           (?' ?')
           (?` ?')
           (?| ?|)
           (?* ?*)
           (?/ ?/)
           (?- ?-)
           (?_ ?_)
           (?~ ?~)))
        (char (char-after))
        (stab nil)) ;;; Syntax table we  use
    (unless (setq pair (assoc char pairs)) ;;; Not on a delimiter 
      (error "Point is not on a supported delimiter"))
    (setq stab (copy-syntax-table))
    (with-syntax-table stab
      (cond
       ((= (cl-first pair) (cl-second pair)) ;;;Like quotes
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-first pair) "\"" ) 
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-second pair) "\"" ))
       (t;;; Like parens 
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-first pair) "(")
        (modify-syntax-entry (cl-second pair) ")")))
      (save-excursion;;; We have our sexp 
        (forward-sexp) ;;; Will error out if delims dont match
        (cond
         (delete ;;; Clear sexp contents 
          (kill-region (1+ orig) (1- (point))))
         (t ;;; Copy sexp contents
             (kill-ring-save (1+ orig) (1- (point)))))))))

2.1 Key Take-Aways

• S-expressions are a key Emacs concept with extensive built-in support.
• S-expressions are determined by matching delimiters.
• Delimiters are defined by the syntax-table in effect.
• Emacs-lisp primitives let us define and manipulate temporary syntax-tables.
• Putting it all together, the underlying task of snarfing the contents within a pair of delimiters reduces to a few calls to the underlying primitives.

Contextual Context Switching For An Efficient Workflow

1 Executive Summary

Context switching in an Emacs workflow comes down to switching buffers — and Emacs provides a large number of built-ins and extensions packages for switching buffers. One can put together numerous workflows by picking among these to make context switching contextual — using the most appropriate workflow can lead to being able to focus much better on the core task of creating, editing, reviewing and publishing all forms of content ranging from research papers and presentations to Open Source Software.

This article summarizes my present workflow — it's entirely keyboard driven and optimized for an eyes-free workflow.

2 Where Does Context Come From?

Context as used in this article can be traced back to the current task at hand — here are some illustrative examples:

1. Editing a set of related files. (.c, .h)
2. Switching among a collection of chat buffers. (major-mode)
3. Switching among a collection of mail folders. (major-mode)
4. Switching among a collection of open Web pages. (major-mode)
5. Switching among a small number of recently used buffers. (recency)
6. Switching among buffers in the same project (project)
7. Switching between project-specific shells and buffers. (project)

3 Building Blocks For Context Switching

Here are some of the building blocks I use to construct workflows that meet the use-cases enumerated in the previous section. Many of these are built into Emacs; some come from extra packages and a few are implemented in Emacspeak to fill the gaps. See the related article Search, Input, Filter, Target (SIFT) interaction described in a previous article for a more detailed explanation or properties that characterize effective eyes-free interaction.

1. Built-in Command next-buffer and previous-buffer bound to hyper-, and hyper-..
2. Builtin Command ~ other-window bound to C-x o.
3. Emacspeak Commands emacspeak-wizards-cycle-to-next-buffer and emacspeak-wizards-cycle-to-previous-buffer bound to Alt-n and Alt-p.
4. Emacspeak Command emacspeak-wizards-shell-toggle bound to Super-,.
5. Emacspeak Command emacspeak-wizards-shell-by-key bound to C-c [1-9].

3.1 Things To Note

1. Notice that many of these commands come in pairs and use key-bindings that also pair-up with respect to muscle memory; over time I have found this type of pairing to be essential for them to become part of one's daily habit.
2. And when these task-specific commands dont get you the buffer you want with one or two keystrokes, one can always fallback to switch-to-buffer.
3. Built-in Command switch-to-buffer bound to C-x b which in my environment maps to ido-switch-buffer with fuzzy completion.

3.2 Related Packages

There are of course many alternatives to the building blocks above, here is a non-exhaustive list:

• Package helm with ivy, counsel and friends.
• Package selectrum.

• Additionally organizing one's workspace using Emacs Frames with each frame dedicated to tasks like email — visual workspaces.

  In general, I've not found any of the above adding much in the context of eyes-free interaction.

4 Conclusion

Emacs has a large number of facilities that lend themselves to multiple workflows. Investing some time in putting together workflows that suit one's needs has a large pay-back over time.

Announcing Emacspeak 54.0—EZDog!

The enjoyment of one's tools is an essential ingredient of successful work. – Donald E. Knuth

1 For Immediate Release:

San Jose, CA, (May 3, 2021)

1.1 Emacspeak 54.0 (EZDog) Unleashed! 🦮

— Making Accessible Computing EZ Again!

Advancing Accessibility In The Age Of User-Aware Interfaces — Zero cost of Ownership makes priceless software Universally affordable!

Emacspeak Inc (NASDOG: ESPK) — http://github.com/tvraman/emacspeak announces immediate world-wide availability of Emacspeak 54.0 (EZDog) 🦮 — a powerful audio desktop that leverages today's evolving Data, Social and Assistant-Oriented Internet cloud to enable working efficiently and effectively from anywhere!

2 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 2021 is trading at levels close to that achieved by once better known stocks in the tech sector.

3 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 ubiquitous assistance, Web-surfing, blogging, remote software development, 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 assistant-oriented social Internet cloud.

4 Major Enhancements:

1. Faster Startup 🛱
2. MP3 Files In Dired 🎹
3. Dynamic playlist support with m-player 🎶
4. Gopher And Gemini ♊
5. Emacs 28 with native compilation 🚅
6. Updated Soundscapes 🐦
7. Updated wizards🧙
8. Updated URL templates 🕷
9. Capitalization And AllCaps 💼

10. Updated keymaps and keybindings ⌨

    — And a lot more than will fit this margin. … 🗞

Note: This version requires emacs-27.1 or later.

5 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 and the underlying GIT versioning software used to develop and distribute the system.

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 Assistance and 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.

6 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!”.

6.1 Note from Aster,Bubbles and Tilden:

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

7 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@emacspeak.org. 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 at GitHub.

8 History:

• Emacspeak 54.0 (EZDog) learns to take it easy from Tilden.
• Emacspeak 53.0 (EfficientDog) focuses on efficiency.
• Emacspeak 52.0 (WorkAtHomeDog) makes working remotely a pleasurable experience.
• Bigger and more powerful than any smart assistAnt, AssistDog provides

instant access to the most relevant information at all times.

• Emacspeak 50.0 (SageDog) embraces the wisdom of stability as opposed to rapid change and the concomitant creation of bugs.🚭: Naturally Intelligent (NI)™ at how information is spoken, Emacspeak

is entirely free of Artificial Ingredients (AI)™.

• Emacspeak 49.0 (WiseDog) leverages the wisdom gleaned from earlier releases to provide an enhanced auditory experience.
• Emacspeak 48.0 (ServiceDog) builds on earlier releases to provide continued end-user value.
• Emacspeak 47.0 (GentleDog) goes the next step in being helpful while letting users learn and grow.
• Emacspeak 46.0 (HelpfulDog) heralds the coming of Smart Assistants.
• Emacspeak 45.0 (IdealDog) is named in recognition of Emacs' excellent integration with various programming language environments — thanks to this, Emacspeak is the IDE of choice for eyes-free software engineering.
• Emacspeak 44.0 continues the steady pace of innovation on the audio desktop.
• Emacspeak 43.0 brings even more end-user efficiency by leveraging the ability to spatially place multiple audio streams to provide timely auditory feedback.
• 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 on 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 on 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 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.

9 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. 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. Note that we are currently looking for a new home for the mailing list — stay tuned; in the meantime, the list is available via nntp+news.gmane.io:gmane.emacs.emacspeak.general from within Gnus.

10 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:

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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, Hubbell and Tilden 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.