Maintaining speechd-up

[Bill Cox]

Hi.  When I updated the speech-dispatcher package in the Vinux testing
repository to 0.7, it broke speechd-up, which upset most of the Vinux
testers, which is why I had to hastily remove the new
speech-dispatcher package.  I've hacked the speechd-up code a fair
amount to make it work much more like espeakup, and users seem to like
my hacked up version.  The opentts fork of speechd-up, ospeakup,
already includes the important changes, and can be used as-is.  Is
there any plan to maintain/fix/upgrade speechd-up for use with
speech-dispatcher?

Many blind hackers in Vinux land spend most of their time in speakup,
and many of them prefer the voxin voice. Speechd-up is the only code
ever written to make that work, AFAIK.  I know of no alternatives to
speakup which are currently as usable with speech synthesis, making
speechd-up a fairly critical project.

Thanks,
Bill