process speaker

[<bart@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

abooth@xxxxxxxxxxx writes:
 > Andy Booth (abooth@xxxxxxxxxxx)
 > 
 > Hello all,
 > 
 > I am a newbee to Linux, emac & emacspeak!
just a slight correction, it's emacs.
 > 
 > With assistance, I have the Redhat 4.2 installation
 > running, loaded the emac application from the CDROM, and
 > downloaded emacspeak from the net.
another suggestion is to upgrade to the latest redhat or debian distribution, much has changed since rh 4.2 we are at 5.2 at the moment. 
 > Unfortunately having followed the emacspeak make
 > instructions and running the application, silence!
 > My DECtalk Express refuses to speak!
 > 
 > I get an error message of the form:
 > "process speaker not running"
 > from emacspeak!

 > 
 > I think I am close, but am obviously missing something.
your very close.
there is a problem where emacspeak can't find the dtk-exp script which drives the dectalk.
or this script isn't running for one reason or another.

the dtk-exp script is normally found in the emacspeak dirrectory.
first you should try running the dtk-exp script by hand.

from the emacspeak dirrectory something like the following would test it:
tcl dtk-exp

this command starts the script.
if you get a responce like:

bash: tcl:: command not found

then tcl or tclx isn't correctly installed on your system.
you will need tcl and tclx prefferably version 8.0.
if you get a % prompt 
then type
q "this is a test."
q "and a second test."

the 'q' command places text on the speech queue to be spoken.
then type 
d
the 'd' command runns the speech queue, so you should hear the two messages you typed above spoken.

if you hear the dectalk speak what you typed you have just proven that the dtk-exp script is working correctly.

if it doesn't speak then check that you have the environment variable DTK_PORT set to the port that the dectalk is connected to.
if it's on com1 called /dev/ttyS0 under linux then:

export DTK_PORT=/dev/ttyS0 will set the dtk-exp script to use the correct port.

if comm2 then it's /dev/ttyS1 and so on.

once this works you can then specify to emacspeak where it is to find the dtk-exp script this shouldn't really be necessary but set the variable as follows.
export DTK_PROGRAM=<where ever you have it> e.g. /usr/local/emacspeak/dtk-exp

after all this you should have emacspeak running with speech when you start it.
one more thing.  do all these tests as root just incase your user doesn't have write access to the serial port.
once it's working as root then test with a normal user account.
 
 > 
 > Can anyone offer advice on this message, or suggest
 > where I'm missing something?

i'm guessing the most probable thing is that you don't have tcl and tclx installed.
but give these instructions a go and see what you discover.

hope to help.
Bart

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