Re: Emacspeak in Arch Linux

["T. V. Raman" <tv.raman.tv@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

this is pretty similar to what my world looks like:-)
>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Cross <theophilusx@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    Tim> I don't think distros will ever keep up to date with
    Tim> emacspeak packages. Part of the problem is that to some
    Tim> extent, emacpseak is just too simple to require
    Tim> packaging. Once you have done it the first time from
    Tim> sources, it is far easier to just continue using a
    Tim> source based build and keeping it up to date.
    Tim> 
    Tim> The other issue is that emacspeak evolves quickly. There
    Tim> are two releases every year. Given the overhead in
    Tim> updating something like a deb package, going through the
    Tim> uat cycle and getting it put into the distro, it is
    Tim> pretty much impossible to keep up to date.
    Tim> 
    Tim> Here is my whole emacs and emacspeak build and
    Tim> maintenance process.
    Tim> 
    Tim> 1. I have two source trees, one for bzr and one for git
    Tim> 
    Tim> 2. Under bzr, I have directories for emacs and vm. Under
    Tim> emacs, I have emacs24 and emacsdev and under vm I just
    Tim> have trunk
    Tim> 
    Tim> 3. Under the git directory, I have directories for
    Tim> emacspeak (I use git svn), w3m-el, w3, jabber and a
    Tim> couple of other packages I like to build from sources.
    Tim> 
    Tim> 4. With the exception of emacs, all other packges run
    Tim> from their source directory. I do not do the usual 'make
    Tim> install' process to install them under /usr/local or
    Tim> /usr. I have setup scripts in my .emacs.d directory for
    Tim> each package which sets the load path and config
    Tim> settings etc.
    Tim> 
    Tim> 5. My update and build process is simple and I only do
    Tim> it once every few weeks.
    Tim> 
    Tim> cd bzr/emacs/emacs24 bzr pull sudo make distclean
    Tim> ./autogen.sh ./configure make bootstrap sudo make
    Tim> install
    Tim> 
    Tim> cd bzr/vm/trunk bzr pull ./build-vm emacs (a script I
    Tim> put together to build vm using emacs or xemcas)
    Tim> 
    Tim> cd git/whatever git pull make clean ./config make
    Tim> 
    Tim> cd git/emacspeak/turnk git checkout master git svn
    Tim> rebase git checkout local git rebase master make clean
    Tim> make config make emacspeak
    Tim> 
    Tim> Some things are not always necessary, such as the
    Tim> autogen.sh and make bootstrap, but I included the long
    Tim> version for clarity. I use the i386 sound infrastructure
    Tim> (alsa, pulse, viavoice, tcl tclx etc) on a 64 bit
    Tim> machines runing ubuntu 11.10. I use the vinux viavoice
    Tim> poackage to setup/install viavoice.
    Tim> 
    Tim> 
    Tim> 
    Tim> 
    Tim> On 28 December 2012 00:21, Alex Midence
    Tim> <alex.midence@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
    Tim> 
    >> From: Jason White [mailto:jason@xxxxxxxxxxx] Sent:
    >> Thursday, December 27, 2012 2:01 AM To:
    >> emacspeak@xxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Emacspeak in Arch
    >> Linux
    >> 
    >> D.J.J. Ring, Jr. <n1ea@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
    >> 
    >> > I'm sure that I could install emacspeak from source,
    >> I've done that > many times but Arch was supposted to have
    >> package builds - the ones > that I have looked at - I
    >> guess it was emacspeak-svn says "Package > refuses to
    >> build" - so that's the frustration.
    >> 
    >> I would suggest taking that up with whoever is maintaining
    >> the official package, or offering to help with it.
    >> 
    >> Linux distributions, on the whole, don't have a good
    >> record of maintaining Emacspeak packages. I don't know why
    >> this is the case, since it's easy to compile and install,
    >> and the dependencies haven't changed much over time.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> This is very much the case in Debian and Ubuntu. I think
    >> the package repositories for Precise (12.04) still feature
    >> Emacspeak 29. The most recent emacspeak package I've
    >> encountered thusfar is for the vinux 3.0 version based on
    >> Ubuntu 10.04 and that was Emacspeak 32 which Bill cox
    >> packaged up.
    >> 
    >> You mentioned that the reason you felt this might be the
    >> case is the lack of motivation by the community to
    >> maintain due to a preference to run from source from svn
    >> checkouts. I also think there are other factors.
    >> 
    >> 1. Dectalk is still, after all these years, the default
    >> speech synthesizer. You have to do some tweaking to get
    >> something else as the default. Espeak is the default
    >> speech synthesizer available on most distros that have a
    >> software speech synth pre-installed so, that would be the
    >> obvious choice for a default speech synthesizer. 2. Pulse
    >> audio issues. I've had some success in the past getting
    >> Emacspeak to work with Pulse in the console environment
    >> following many tips posted here by Tim Cross but I haven't
    >> had much success with it since Emacspeak 34 on Ubuntu
    >> 11.04. 3. Emacspeak has a very small user-base compared to
    >> packages like Speakup or Orca and this user community
    >> tends to be made up of more advanced Linux users who have
    >> the skill to get around the issues outlined in 1 and
    >> 2. 4. Lastly, the user community grows very very slowly
    >> because of the steep learning curve new users face in
    >> order to get up and running because of the lack of recent,
    >> pre-configured packages and up to date documentation that
    >> is hard to find for people interested in it.
    >> 
    >> These last two reasons I outlined are the ones that seem
    >> to dissuade official backing from accessibility groups
    >> particular to each distribution. I know that this is what
    >> I, myself ran across when I proposed having the Emacspeak
    >> packages updated on the Ubuntu accessibility list.
    >> 
    >> 
    >> Regards, Alex M
    >> 
    >> 
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    >> 
    Tim> 
    Tim> 
    Tim> -- Tim Cross

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

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