Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

DidierSpaier
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by DidierSpaier »

Orca is mainly intended to make computers accessible to blind users in graphical environments, not only with speech but also with a Braille device using brltty's brlAPI (this is also included in the new Slint ISO).

Not only Orca can read the screen, it can also in case of properly coded applications describe the window (this is the case e.g. of PCManfm), and also spell what you type.

Without it, software only available in graphical mode like e.g. Firefox or Thunderbird would be inaccessible to blind people. Other voices can be chosen and downloaded that could give better results. Bear in mind that providing a good voice is a lot of work. Big players like Apple, Google or Microsoft can afford to pay people who do it, having volunteers to work for months on that is another story.

Indeed it needs some time to get used to it, as with other software, and there is not much incentive for a sighted person to devote the time needed to learn. Unless this person be a packager or a distribution maintainer intending to provide it, of course ;)
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Atip
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by Atip »

Thank you for the nice explanation.

On another issue you mentioned in an earlier post that
eventually the 32-bit of Slint will not be maintained any longer.
So going full to the 64-bit causes problems for programs
which will not run in the 64-bit.

In my casue I am thinking in particular of "gpasman" and "steak".
For gpasman may be a substitue can be found in the 64-bit,
however, I doubt for steak.

Steak is a English <>German dictionary run from command line
terminal. It does not need any Internet connection and is, terefore
very fast. It even shows the contexts of given words.

So my question, is there a way to make such programs 64-bit
compliant and could a layman like me do it? Eons back I used
to program. I still have gsteak-0.2.1.tar.gz and gpasman-1.9.2.

Bon dimanche!
DidierSpaier
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by DidierSpaier »

I just checked:
  • gsteak needs gnome libs and headers, probably a very old version as the source tarball dates back January 2002, so regardless of the architecture there is no way to build that for any recent distribution.
  • for gpassman on sourceforge there is not even a source tarball. But the package gnome-keyring is shipped in Slint.
EDIT At first in the first bullet line I wrote "there is now way" instead of "there is no way". This is fixed now.
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Atip
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by Atip »

DidierSpaier wrote:I just checked:
  • gsteak needs gnome libs and headers, probably a very old version as the source tarball dates back January 2002, so regardless of the architecture there is no way to build that for any recent distribution.
    .
At leat steak works well in Slint-32bit which I thought is kind of recent. In the 64bit it opens, however, cannot find the given word and runs down all the words in the dictionary.

And BTW I checked in KNOPPIX the adriane and to my hearing it is much more understandably
than orcan. I hope you don't mind me saying this. May be you can pinch something from KNOPPIX. ;)
DidierSpaier
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Joined: 20. Jun 2016, 20:15

Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by DidierSpaier »

Atip wrote:And BTW I checked in KNOPPIX the adriane and to my hearing it is much more understandably
than orca. I hope you don't mind me saying this. May be you can pinch something from KNOPPIX. ;)
I downloaded an ISO and tried it in a VM, so yes the voice is different, especially there is more tonal accent, and that's probably why you find it better (not so for my french ears). I have to investigate to know the origin of the difference, probably they use a different voice. In Slint we could use another one but for English only, as there are few free voices in other languages.
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Atip
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by Atip »

In KNOPPIX there is a virtual keyboard, xvkbd. May be good to add in Slint.
http://t-sato.in.coocan.jp/xvkbd/.

Yes dfifferent nationalities seem to hear things differently:
For the rooster crow "cocorico, kikerikie and here in the Philipines togtogao". :D
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Atip
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by Atip »

Would it be possible to install multilib following the instructions given by
djemos in his post HOW TO INSTALL multilib?
djemos
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Re: Slint64-14.2.1RC ISO available for testing.

Post by djemos »

Atip wrote:Would it be possible to install multilib following the instructions given by
djemos in his post HOW TO INSTALL multilib?
Yes.
For slackware 14.2 or salix or slint ( or for slackware stable versions in general ) run

Code: Select all

su
install-multilib salix local
But i do not like multilib. I want to have a clean system without multilib.
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