[Sugar-devel] [FEATURE] Global Text to Speech

[Simon Schampijer]

On 22/11/11 03:23, Gonzalo Odiard wrote:
> Attached is a first try of implementation, to discuss.
>
> Is using gstreamer-plugins-espeak, already included in the last images,
> and used in all the activities using text-to-speech. Do not add any new
> dependency.
>
> A device is added in the frame to configure pitch and velocity,
> and the hotkey alt-shift-s is used to say the selected text.
>
> The SpeechManager provide a simple say_text method to be used by activities
> if needed.
>
> A pending functionality is add a list of languages, to translate it and
> have a single list,
> and do not need translate this list in every activity. There are code in
> Speak activity to do this,
> I need look at this.
>
> Gonzalo

Hi Gonzalo,

thanks for the patch! Here are a few notes:

- when you have a text selected and want it to be spoken out a clipboard 
entry is created (I guess you need to have a look at why the clipboard 
tray reacts to that selection)

- you specify gconf keys, those would need to be added to the schema as well

- when you select a long text for reading there is no way to pause/stop 
it, might be worth having that option as well

- the shortcut is a bit long, maybe 'alt+s' is enough? (see above, maybe 
there is a shortcut as well for stopping? or hitting it again does stop 
the current playing one?)

- it would be great to write in the Feature page a bit more about the 
what the Feature does and what it does not do, after discussing with you 
the other day: it is available in the Shell+Activities for any text you 
select, it does not allow you to do activity specific operations like 
reading a chapter in Read, or a whole book or a wikipedia activity in 
Browse nor does it is a primary tool for Accessibility (no criticism 
intended just to note what it does and what not)

Formal:

- there are a few items that do not need to be public e.g. 
'self.pipeline' in 'AudioGrabGst'

- the copyright in the files is a bit all over the place

Regards,
    Simon