[DECtalk] It's time to bust some DECtalk myths

[Don]

It's also possible that the /etc/speakup/dectlk files are just the
initial values that you would like SpeakUp to use.  It is possible
that they are ignored, once SpeakUp has started!

On 9/19/2022 11:14 PM, Don wrote:
> If /dev/stty was a regular tty device (it may well be, I don't know
> as I can't see it!), then the SpeakUp people could make it accessible
> by not opening it in an "exclusive" use mode -- locked to prevent
> anything else from accessing it while they are doing so.
>
> This would just be a temporary change.  Or, maybe a "switch" that
> allows SpeakUp to operate in "non-exclusive mode" -- user cautioned
> not to dick with this unless they really know what they are doing!
>
> This would allow you to manually route characters to that "device"
> even while SpeakUp was doing so.  Obviously, this can confuse things
> if SpeakUp is trying to say "Hello" and you send "Goodbye" to the
> device!  Hence the caution against casual misuse.
>
> The files under /etc/speakup/dectlk, if writeable, would likely allow
> the user to set those parameters directly by writing specific values to
> each of the files.  E.g., to make it speak faster, write "220" to the
> /etc/speakup/dectlk/rate file.
>
> If the files are readable, they likely represent SpeakUp's idea of
> what these parameters are, presently.  So, if the "rate" was 150,
> it would mean that SpeakUp last told the synthesizer to speak at
> 150 words per minute.
>
> Note that this assumes nothing else can talk to the synthesizer!
> We, of course, are asking for the ability to do exactly that!
>
> As such, we could manually send a command to the DECtalk telling
> it to speak at 200 words per minute.  I suspect the contents
> of /etc/speakup/dectlk/rate would still show 150 -- because
> we bypassed SpeakUp when we sent the commands directly to the
> DECtalk!
>
> A nicer implementation would have SpeakUp query the synthesizer
> each time you read one of these files and return the current
> setting FROM THE SYNTHESIZER -- instead of just whatever SpeakUp
> remembered sending.
>
> In that case, when the "drop" occurred, you could just read the
> rate, pitch and volume "files" to see what they had changed to.
> It would be equivalent to asking the DECtalk what each of these
> parameters were, at the current time!