Hi, The standard emacspeak distribution that comes with Ubuntu, when compared with orca or other graphical things, has minimal requirements. I would go so far as to say that you can run emacspeak on any hardware on which your favorite GNU/Linux distro will also run and hardly notice your resources changing.
Ubuntu makes installing emacspeak very easy, I do not know about other distros but the one from GNU itself would certainly do so as well. cdh On Aug 29, 2009, at 4:53 PM, Jonathan C. Cohn wrote: > Chris, > > What are the requirements for emacs speak? When last I used emacs > regularly on a Ultra-2, I had no need for a screen reader, just > setting my fonts at 28 pt and reverse video (thanks Kyle Jones for > the help). I know there is a copy of emacs in /usr/bin and I think > it might even be GNU's version. If so what would need to happen to > use emacspeak on my Leopard machine and could it interface with the > Mac synthesizers or would GNU ones have to be added. > > Jon > > On Aug 29, 2009, at 8:30 AM, Chris Hofstader wrote: > >> >>> Hank asked: does that mean orca will die in linux to? >> >> cdh replies: >> >> The beauty of free software like orca versus proprietary software >> like JAWS (for instance) is that although Sun Microsystems has led >> the orca development, virtually any hacker or group thereof can >> take the source and continue the project. The nation of Brazil has >> elected to standardize all of its government owned and operated >> computing devices on free, GNU/Linux operating systems. They have >> two major reasons: the first, they fear that Apple and/or Microsoft >> may have built in some code into Windows and OSX to spy for the >> American government. Given the human rights record demonstrated by >> Yahoo and others spying for the Chinese government, why not think >> that the two biggest OS vendors may be helping out Uncle Sam? >> >> With the GNU/Linux OS, they have every line of source code and >> their own security personnel can go through one line at a time and >> make sure no such code exists before the Brazilian secrets show up >> at Fort Mead. >> >> The second reason is price. A GNU/Linux distribution will run >> pretty nicely on a clunky, single core, 32 bit used Dell; Snow >> Leopard and Windows 7 require pretty hefty hardware to be used >> effectively. >> >> The orca question comes in as Brazil has laws regarding people with >> disabilities that are far stronger than our wimpy ADA and their >> laws include explicit language about technology. So, while Sun is >> organizing the project, Brazil and other nations are contributing >> hackers to the project to help keep it moving forward. >> >> There are a number of other governments making similar decisions >> for similar reasons - after our government got caught spying on >> Americans, all credibility that we were not spying on everyone else >> flew out the window and closed and complicated technology is in the >> James Bond book of tricks. >> >> Those of us who get to use Macintosh and even Windows with our >> screen reader of choice really need to realize just how fortunate >> we are. I spend a fair amount of time in Ubuntu with orca and, >> often, emacspeak. The latter is highly stable and crusty old farts >> like me still remember a large portion of the complex emacs >> keystroke catalogue. Orca does a not bad job in a few high profile >> programs but, because few developers are coding to the gnome >> standard and, therefore, few programs support the excellent gnome >> accessibility API, orca gets a lot less "for free" than Macintosh >> or Windows. >> >> For we who write programs or test systems on GNU/Linux platforms, >> it is pretty good as it has fully accessible tools fart in excess >> of anything Mac or Windows offer. For most others who need orca, >> though, it is a bit clunky and often unstable. >> >> I'd love to suggest that we all walk away from the world of >> proprietary software but, developing for niche audiences like us >> blinks fails to meet the critical mass necessary to sustain a world >> of free software hackers like the server tools, Apache, etc. >> >> So, while we love to praise Apple and boo Microsoft, they are >> really the only alternatives for blinks who don't want to spend a >> whole lot of time fixing their environment. >> >> cdh >> >> >> >> > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
