Re: Dectalk USB Parameters

[Kenny Hitt <kenny hittsjunk net>]

Hi.

On Mon, Feb 14, 2005 at 05:21:13PM -0800, Peter Korn wrote:
> I'm glad you are moving toward resolving this with Access Solutions.  I 
> think the most critical things are:
> 
>  1. That the DECTalk Express can be "killed" with a particular sequence
>     of characters sent to it.  This is fundamentally a DECTalk Express
>     issue.  It doesn't really have anything to do with Gnopnericus.  Some
>     other application could have done the same thing.
> 

I have to disagree.  I have 3 hardware synths: an old DECtalk express
(serial only), a Doubletalk LT, and an Accentsa.  Enabling the screen
reader option in the assistive technology dialog will crash all 3 of
them.  In my case, the crash isn't perminent.  However, it will cause me
to loose access to my text consoles.  Gnopernicus and gnome
accessibility just isn't good enough yet to provide a blind user access
to a Linux system.  Until this changes, loosing access to the text
console is no different than you suddenly loosing your monitor.

I have 3 text console screen readers installed on this system.  All of
them are designed in such a way that the Gnopernicus problem doesn't
happen.


>  2. That Gnopernicus by default launches wanting to talk to a particular
>     Braille device, and that this is unexpected by users and can have
>     unintended side effects (such as your rather catastrophic one).
> 
> There has been some discussion in this thread about Gnopernicus "probing" 
> the serial port trying to determine which Braille device is connected.  In 
> discussions with BAUM engineering earlier today, I don't believe this to be 
> the case.  From all that I've seen in this thread and from my own 
> familiarity with Gnopernicus, I believe that #2 above is what happened.
> 

Please explain this more.  Gnopernicus is clearly writing to the serial
port.

> It has been suggested that Gnopernicus NOT be launchable *initially* from 
> the GUI, but rather that the first launching must instead be from the 
> command line and that the options there then be taken by Gnopernicus and 
> used thereafter. I personally think this is a mistake.  Too many 
> magnification users need it to work.  We also introduce a significant 
> impediment to localization by having Gnopernicus play a WAV file (rather 
> than immediately default to using speech).
> 
If you're refering to my suggestion about adding a command lin option
for braille, then you are misunderstanding what I meant.  When I suggest
a command line for Gnopernicus, I mean something added to the command
typed in the run dialog of Gnome, not a command in a text console.

If by GUI, you mean the assistive technology dialog, then consider
adding the following buttons.  When "enable screen reader" is checked,
the user will be presented with the same dialog you get from option 1 of
the main menu of gnopernicus.  This will allow a sighted user to
configure Gnopernicus corectly.  For the blind user who is already
running Gnopernicus, this will be anoying, but it should solve the
problem of the screen reader trashing other access technology running on
the system.


> Personally, I think the appropriate solution is to have Gnopernicus either 
> use only BrlAPI as Braille by default with no command-line options, or to 
> not use Braille at all by default when launched with no command-line 
> options.
> 

This last statement shows you aren't as familiar with Gnopernicus as you
think.  the current behavior of Gnopernicus when started from a run
dialog in Gnome is to start with speech enabled using the Kevin voice of
the gnome-speech festival driver.  Because there isn't a command line
option to start with braille support, users who are deth blind can't get
Gnopernicus up and running without help.  I believe you could set gconf
keys from a text console, but you seem to be trying to discourage the
use of text console access.

Please consider spending more time running Gnome and it's assistive
technologys.  You really can't beat hands on experience to understand a
problem.

I'll go ahead and apologize in advance for that last statement, but it's
really frustrating when a sighted person running MS Windows posts a
message suggesting a problem with Gnome accessibility that costs 
me access to my computer isn't really a big deal.
One of the greatest things about switching from MS Windows to Linux for me
was finally being able to install and maintain the system without
sighted help.  In my view, anything that causes me to loose that access
is a step backward.

          Kenny