Re: Creating an Operating System with speech included

  • From: Jared Wright <wright.jaredm@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Sat, 06 Dec 2008 14:08:21 -0500

I was extremely excited about Voice Over initially, but I too must say I've been a little underwhelmed by its progress since.


JW

Ken Perry wrote:
I give them 4 years.  I have tried using it and tried using it for over 6
months I have got so sick of it and the developers are not listening.   It
will take them more than 6 months to fix the problems.


Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Chris Hofstader
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 9:53 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: Creating an Operating System with speech included

If it's just speech, MS includes it in the OS with SAPI.  If we're talking
about a speech interface like a screen reader, Apple and, to a lesser
extent, Orca are really OS components more so than what we would think of as
a screen reader on Windows.

Tipping my hat to Apple for absolute coolness, if one buys a new Macintosh
running OSX Leopard or newer, brings it home, plugs it in, hits the "on"
button and just waits a little while, the VoiceOver screen reader will start
talking automatically.  The Apple OS installation people decided that if a
user took more than n minutes to start interacting with the dialogues that
they may not be able to see them so the pop right into the screen reader in
its tutorial mode so you can learn enough to complete the installation
without any sighted assistance whatsoever.
There are still some very clunky aspects to VoiceOver (do not try to use it
with a laptop unless you add an external keyboard) and its support for HTML
is years behind what we've come to expect on Windows but other things, like
providing context from a API driven access program is really cool once one
grows accustomed to using it (changing UI paradigms can be infuriating
during the learning process).
I'm willing to predict that VO will be competitive with the Windows programs
in six months to a year.

Also, I've kept my MacBook 13 running for over four consecutive weeks
without a reboot even with a screen reader going (a class of software
notorious for inserting instability into a system) which definitely speaks
to a lot of the value of an API driven approach.

I've written quite a bit about Macintosh on the blog over the past few
months so if you want more of my opinion, I recommend going there and
searching on Apple.  You will also find articles in which I blast them for a
bunch of shitty things they've done as well.


Happy Hacking,
cdh
Chris Hofstader
email: cdh@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Blog: http://www.blindconfidential.blogspot.com
Skype: BlindChristian
-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Trouble
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 9:32 AM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Creating an Operating System with speech included

its not hard to create a op with built in speech. mac has done it and it even has talking install. In fact you can run the op straight off the cd with speech. So it wouldn't be hard for a company like Microsoft to do such, and the speech in the op would be more stable then the third party stuff we run now.

At 05:01 AM 12/6/2008, you wrote:
Sorry, but I think you don't know what you are talking about.

First, I didn't say that Jaws is a Microsoft program. I said only that the best accessibility is offered by Windows and Jaws and not by Orca and Linux, but not even the comparison between these 2 is important, but the fact that it is very hard to create another OS with another screen reader built in.

Second, I know that Orca works with Linux, but Sun doesn't pretend that they've created the most advanced Linux OS, but that they've created Solaris, the most advanced OS. However, Solaris is not accessible for the blind, or it is accessible but only by using emacspeak, which has a very ugly interface and offers a poor accessibility anyway, and I haven't tested Solaris so I don't really know if it really supports emacspeak or it is just a future plan for Sun.

By the way, have anyone tried Solaris?

Octavian

----- Original Message ----- From: "black ares" <matematicianu2003@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:39 AM
Subject: Re: Creating an Operating System with speech included


don't forget that jaws is not a microsoft software and, taking software only from the two grand companies, sun is better than microsoft.
Because, with orca you can do more than with narator from windows.
So Sun has right assuming it as the best company offering an advanced os with speak.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Octavian Rasnita" <orasnita@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 10:08 AM
Subject: Re: Creating an Operating System with speech included


Windows is an operating system with speech included. Do you want to
create a
better OS than Windows and a better screen reader than Narrator?
I guess you want to create a better one, because otherwise... why bother?

In order to do that, you should create a company, employ a few thousands
of
good programmers and after very many years you might do it.
Sun Microsystems has tens of thousands of programmers and they pretend
that
they have created the most advanced operating system in the world, and
they
have also made one of the most used screen readers for Linux, but the
accessibility offered by their solutions is much lower than the one
offered
by Windows and screen readers like Jaws, and Sun work on their OS for
very
many years, so... it could be very hard to do what you want.

Octavian

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jose Lomeli"
<jose.lomeli93@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 05, 2008 10:05 AM
Subject: Creating an Operating System with speech included


Hello; Listers, I just thought.  What do I have to do to create a
operating system with speech.  I just thought about this.  Can this be
done? Please write back.
From Jose Lomeli.
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Tim
trouble
Verizon support tech
"Never offend people with style when you can offend them with substance."
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