From: Jamal Mazrui <Jamal.Mazrui@...>
Date: 2006-07-07T01:56:43+09:00
Subject: Re: text to speech?

I happen to be blind, myself (challenges of both the speech interface
and Microsoft Outlook make top posting much easier for me).  I do not
have experience with Ruby on Linux, just Windows.  In case feedback
about this platform is also of interest, I have found that the available
IDE's for programming in Ruby do not work well with a screen reader such
as JAWS (the one I use).  

Programming is practical, however, with a text editor like TextPad or
NoteTab.  In fact, I have personally developed a text editor called
TextPal, using the Ruby language and wrappers for the WxWidgets GUI
library (which produces accessible controls unlike other cross-platform
libraries).  It is fully keyboard accessible and offers almost every
feature I've found in a text editor (I compared many), and does so in a
manner intended to maximize usability by blind persons.  

For anyone interested, the installer for TextPal, a free, open source
editor is available at the following direct download address:
http://www.EmpowermentZone.com/palsetup.exe
It may be easily uninstalled as well.

Under Windows, Ruby console mode utilities work well with a screen
reader.  These include irb, ri, and gem.

Hope this helps.  Feel free to ask further questions either publicly or
privately.

Jamal

-----Original Message-----
From: Arun [mailto:arunlists@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, July 06, 2006 11:42 AM
To: ruby-talk ML
Subject: text to speech?


Hi, I'm new to Ruby and to Linux, but not to programming. I teach blind
people how to program in New Delhi, and it saddens me that they all use
MS Windows. I teach them Visual Basic version 6, which is far more
accessible to the blind than later versions, but that is another story.

Anyway, in looking for a programming environment well suited to Linux,
I examined Ruby, and loved it. Now, of course, for a blind person,
audio is as important as the screen is for the sighted, and even to do
your first "Hello World" program, you need text to speech to be
working.

I'm running Ubunty Breezy, and have Gnopernicus installed, but in the
terminal window, it only reads out part of what is needed: program
output is ignored. I'm therefore wondering how I might access text to
speech in Ruby, preferably in a manner that works independent of what
kind of Linux is installed. I was unable to get Emacspeak to say
anything, and did not have much joy trying to get it to compile and
debug Ruby code.

Ideas or thoughts related to any of the above would be highly
appreciated. 

Arun