Emacspeak --Frequently Asked Questions

1. Q: Why speech enable Emacs rather than write a screen-reader for UNIX at the TTY driver level?

   A: The Emacs-based solution is as effective and is also extensible.

2. Q: How does Emacspeak work? A: Here is an overview of how Emacspeak is architectured, and how you can extend it for a particular Emacs subsystem.
3. My Dectalk Express says "space" before speaking each character as I type using Emacspeak.

   A: This means that you have a Dectalk Express that has old firmware. Other symptoms of old firmware include:

   • Index marks are incorrectly processed by the Express. As a consequence, sometimes you will hear Emacspeak speak just the first clause of a long sentence.
   • When speaking single characters, the express will say "space" each time before speaking the letter.
   The initial release of the Dectalk Express firmware is dated July 1994, the second release is dated October 1994. Both these releases had bugs which have since been fixed. The newest firmware release is dated Mar 1995. You can check the firmware version you have by executing Emacspeak command emacspeak-zap-dtk (normally bound to C-e d z ) and sending the string "[:version speak]".

   If you indeed have out-dated firmware, you should request an upgrade diskette from Digital (Anne Nelson nelson@dectlk.enet.dec.com). Note: Please do not send me email asking for an upgrade disk to fix this problem.

4. Q: Will Emacspeak work with the DectalkPC? A: At present, no. The DectalkPC is a PC board that communicates with the PC via the bus. Also, the DectalkPC driver that comes with the device will only run under DOS. For this reason, you canot use the DectalkPC under Linux.
5. Q: Why does Emacspeak come with .au files when it uses a speech synthesizer to produce speech? A: The sound files (.au files) are used by Emacspeak to provide auditory icons, and make the interface nicer. They are not essential for getting complete feedback from Emacspeak; they only enhance the interface.