[BRLTTY] Language setting for speech drivers?

[Mario Lang]

Samuel Thibault <samuel.thibault at ens-lyon.org> writes:

> Dave Mielke, le Thu 27 Nov 2008 12:42:49 -0500, a écrit :
>> >Come to think of it, speech should probably autoswitch language
>> >based on the current contraction table in use, since that pretty much implies
>> >a specific language already.  
>> 
>> I suppose the text table also would imply a language.  If we're
>> contracting then we could infer from the contraction table and if
>> we're not contracting then we could infer from the text table.
>
> Mmm, maybe not so simple. Does one really want to hear shell things with
> a german voice even if one is using a german non-contracted braille
> table (for efficiency)?

That is why I wrote in my original posting that I think only
de-{voll|kurz}schrift.ctb and en-g2-*.ctb should imply a language.
de-basis.ctb defines the german braille basics, but no contractions,
so it can easily be used in other contexts.  But those tables
that actually contain language specific contractions do actually imply
a language.  Maybe what we need is a "language" opcode in
ctb so that those tables that actually do contraction can set it correctly?

> In such a case the user may want to have BRLTTY automatically use
> english when using a non-contracted german table, but switch to
> german when using the contracted german table.
Right, I was thinking exactly that way.  Maybe I wasnt clear enough.

> More generally, I'd tend to let the user define speech/braille
> preference profiles, like "I'm working with a shell, so speak english
> and output non-contracted german braille", "I'm reading german, so
> speak german and output contracted german braille", "I'm reading arabic
> (for which I don't have a speech synthesis), so speak german output
> non-contracted arabic braille (which I'm currently learning)".

Profiles are an old wish that I also support.  However, I think those
are different issues.  Currently, language is pretty much hardcoded
in the speech drivers and the user doesnt have a way to dynamically switch the
language, you have to restart BRLTTY.  Thats as inconvenience as you can get.
If language is just a preferences option it can hopefully later on be made
configurable in "profiles".
Maybe profiles are really just a way to switch between several
saved preferences based on some rules, that doesn't sound like much of an
intrusion.

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