[orca-list] Announcing the OpenTTS project, a fork of speech-dispatcher

[mk360]

    Well, really the future of speech dispatcher / open tts is important for 
orca and gnome 3.0.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "hackingKK" <address@hidden>
To: address@hidden
To: "Bill Cox" <waywardgeek at gmail.com>
Cc: "Ubuntu Accessibility Mailing List" 
<ubuntu-accessibility at lists.ubuntu.com>; "Gnome Accessibility List" 
<gnome-accessibility-list at gnome.org>; <speechd at lists.freebsoft.org>; 
"Orca 
screen reader developers" <orca-list at gnome.org>; <blinux-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 13, 2010 1:22 PM
Subject: Re: [orca-list] Announcing the OpenTTS project,a fork of 
speech-dispatcher


> Before this gets into a long thread, can we please take this off the list?
> it was ok till announcements and congratulating the team but I think the 
> discussion is not going with contect to Orca.
> Perhaps the blinux could be the proper place for this thread and further 
> discussion.
>
> Happy hacking.
> Krishnakant.
> On Tuesday 13 April 2010 10:31 PM, Bill Cox wrote:
>> Luke is project lead, though I believe a couple of others may also
>> have authority to commit changes.  However, Luke has to date worked to
>> form consensus on the opentts-dev mailing list before making
>> significant changes.  Progress in the last several weeks has been
>> truly outstanding, and I for one am happy that opentts is in good
>> hands, and that I probably wont have to go digging into this code
>> anymore :-)
>>
>> Bill
>>
>> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 1:09 AM, A<avalon at friendofpooh.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> Who's project lead or is there a committee? Sorry but it is not
>>> obvious from the announcement who's having the final word on
>>> decisions.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>>>
>>> On Tue, Apr 13, 2010 at 4:07 AM, Luke Yelavich<themuso at ubuntu.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I am writing to announce a fork of speech-dispatcher, the open source 
>>>> text-to-speech framework, initially developed by Brailcom as a part of 
>>>> the freebsoft project, http://www.freebsoft.org. The fork also includes 
>>>> other important components of the speech stack, including speechd-up, 
>>>> the connector between speakup and speech-dispatcher, and the 
>>>> speech-dispatcher java bindings. As you may have guessed from the 
>>>> subject, the fork is now called OpenTTS. OpenTTS refers to both the 
>>>> speech server, API and documentation, as well as the umbrella project 
>>>> as a whole. The other projects mentioned above have also been given new 
>>>> names, speechd-up is now known as OSpeakup, and speechd-java is now 
>>>> known as OpenTTS-java.
>>>>
>>>> Why Fork Speech Dispatcher and Related Projects?
>>>>
>>>> One of the fundamental freedoms granted by the GPL is the freedom to 
>>>> publish one's modifications to the source code of a software product. 
>>>> Sometimes, such publication takes the form of a fork, in which the 
>>>> modified product is developed separately from the original. In this 
>>>> case, we've chosen to make forks of software initially produced by the 
>>>> Brailcom group. We'll describe our reasons for doing that below.
>>>>
>>>> The Brailcom group had a great idea.  They wanted to provide a system 
>>>> or user-level service to control synthetic speech.  That was Speech 
>>>> Dispatcher. They created libraries to ease the task of communicating 
>>>> with that service, so that it would be possible for programmers to 
>>>> speech-enable their applications , simply by calling output functions 
>>>> provided by one of these libraries.  For several years, Brailcom 
>>>> actively maintained and promoted Speech Dispatcher and the software 
>>>> associated with it. They innovated, and the community at large was slow 
>>>> to adopt.
>>>>
>>>> Over time, projects within the accessibility community began to embrace 
>>>> Speech Dispatcher.  It is now the preferred speech synthesis backend of 
>>>> the Orca screenreader. The Speakup screenreader can control many 
>>>> software-based text-to-speech engines with the help of Speech 
>>>> Dispatcher and a small connector program. One advantage of that 
>>>> strategy is that Orca and Speakup can cooperatively use the same 
>>>> text-to-speech engine.  The key point is that many projects have 
>>>> adopted Speech Dispatcher, to a greater or lesser extent.
>>>>
>>>> As time passed, the tables turned. The most recent official release of 
>>>> Speech Dispatcher was made in the summer of 2008.  The developers began 
>>>> taking less and less of a role in the project.  The source code moved 
>>>> from a CVS repository to git in 2009.  During much of that year, active 
>>>> development took place in a repository hosted by Luke Yelavich.  Mr. 
>>>> Yelavich even produced several unofficial "release candidate" versions 
>>>> of Speech Dispatcher. Unfortunately, the official release process is 
>>>> stalled. In an effort to clarify the current status of the software, 
>>>> members of the community contacted Brailcom. Replies to these requests 
>>>> for information were somewhat non-committal.  In effect, Brailcom 
>>>> stated that they were interested in developing Speech Dispatcher, but 
>>>> they had no current plans.
>>>>
>>>> That, in short, is why we forked.  Members of the open-source 
>>>> accessibility community need and want an actively-developed speech 
>>>> framework. The OpenTTS project hopes to fulfill that need by carrying 
>>>> forward the vision set forth by Brailcom.
>>>>
>>>> The OpenTTS.org website is now live, although there is not much there 
>>>> at the moment. The site will be expanded in the near future to add 
>>>> areas for documentation, and feature specification tracking, to help 
>>>> developers better outline and indicate what the next release of OpenTTS 
>>>> will contain. You will also find a link to our mailing lists, where you 
>>>> can discuss OpenTTS development.
>>>>
>>>> We welcome all contributors from the community who wish to help us 
>>>> further develope the OpenTTS framework, and encourage any interested 
>>>> contributors to join the opentts-dev mailing list. To get more 
>>>> information on this list, or other lists relating to OpenTTS, please go 
>>>> to http://lists.opentts.org. We also especially welcome any Brailcom 
>>>> staff who wish to contribute to the project.
>>>>
>>>> I plan to announce the focus for OpenTTS development over the next 6 
>>>> months very soon, and will do so on the opentts-dev mailing list (see 
>>>> above), and the website, so please stay tuned for more information. 
>>>> Should you have any questions, please feel free to subscribe to the 
>>>> opentts-users mailing list, and ask away. Commonly asked questions will 
>>>> be put up on the website for all to read.
>>>>
>>>> Finally, I'd like to thank Chris Brannon and William Hubbs for their 
>>>> hard work so far in helping get things off the ground, particularly 
>>>> with code cleanup and re-organisation. I would also like to thank all 
>>>> of those in the community who supported going ahead with the fork, you 
>>>> know who you are.
>>>>
>>>> I sincerely hope that from here on out, we can create a text to speech 
>>>> framework that can rival those available for proprietary operating 
>>>> systems, as well as creating a framework that all application 
>>>> developers feel comfortable working with. Text to speech is important 
>>>> for more than just those with a disability, it is very useful for many 
>>>> other people for many different tasks. Lets give them a reason to want 
>>>> to use it.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Luke Yelavich
>>>> OpenTTS project lead.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Speechd mailing list
>>>> Speechd at lists.freebsoft.org
>>>> http://lists.freebsoft.org/mailman/listinfo/speechd
>>>>
>>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> orca-list mailing list
>>> orca-list at gnome.org
>>> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
>>> Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
>>> The manual is at 
>>> http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
>>> The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
>>> Netiquette Guidelines are at 
>>> http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelines
>>> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
>>> Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> orca-list mailing list
>> orca-list at gnome.org
>> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
>> Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
>> The manual is at 
>> http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
>> The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
>> Netiquette Guidelines are at 
>> http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelines
>> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
>> Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
>>
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speechd mailing list
> Speechd at lists.freebsoft.org
> http://lists.freebsoft.org/mailman/listinfo/speechd
>