Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman) (01/23/91)
Index Number: 13134
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Tinytalk is yet another speech access program for blind users of IBM-
compatible computers. Besides providing the usual immediate output,
keyboard echo and review/control features, it will automatically speak the
kinds of screen changes found in modern applications. Tinytalk was
designed to take up as little run-time memory as possible (currently 16K).
SUPPORTED HARDWARE
There are currently versions for the Echo GP/PC (NOT the internal Echo or
Echo MC), the ASP board from Automated Functions, the Sonix-compatible
Artic cards (requires PortTalk; will work with other PortTalk-compatible
synthesizers), the various Accent synthesizers, the Dectalk, the Audapter
and the Doubletalk PC board. Future versions will support more
synthesizers, both external and internal.
ALL ABOUT WINDOWS
Modern application software doesn't treat the screen like a scroll of paper
with new text coming in at the bottom; it considers it a "page" made up of
"windows." Programs interact with the user by displaying text in these
windows. Tinytalk's window-handling facilities were designed to make this
kind of interaction as natural to the speech user as it is for the sighted
user.
A window is a rectangular part of the screen, specified by the locations of
its top left and bottom right corners. An application program can do
several things with a window. It can display status information that
seldom changes. It can "pop up" a menu when you hit a key. It can show a
"lightbar menu" that lets you select an option by moving a highlighted
video bar over a list of choices. It can display scrolling text in the
window while keeping the rest of the screen "locked in place."
AUTOMATIC POP-UP WINDOW READING
Tinytalk can automatically detect most pop-up windows and read them without
you having to tell it anything. If you have automatic pop-up detection
turned on and an application program draws a box around an area of the
screen, Tinytalk will automatically read the text within the box and try to
guess whether the box contains a light-bar menu. If it does, moving the
cursor will read off the choices. You can re-read an automatic pop-up
window with a single keystroke.
If more than one pop-up window is active, Tinytalk will read only the last
one to pop up. When a window vanishes, Tinytalk will re-read the next most
recently popped-up window if there is one.
DEFINED WINDOWS
You can tell Tinytalk about windows that mean special things to your
application. You can define up to ten windows and tell it what kind of
display to expect in them. Tinytalk will then speak them in a natural way.
You can specify when the window should be read and how it should be read.
You can silence a window so you won't have to listen to a constantly
updated status line; you can monitor a window and hear it when it changes;
you can have scrolling text read in natural order, even if the text is
written with direct screen writes. You can hear the entire window or only
part of it.
You can read more than one defined window at a time. For example, some
applications will display an explanation line as you move through a
lightbar menu. You can hear both the menu choice and the explanation if
you set up windows properly.
You can set up one window to be "triggered" by changes in another window.
This feature comes in handy when part of the screen usually contains
material you don't want to hear but sometimes displays important
information.
OPERATION
Tinytalk gives you these facilities:
IMMEDIATE OUTPUT
All screen output sent through DOS or BIOS routines will be spoken as it
occurs. You can disable this.
JUNK SUPPRESSION
If an application displays a long line of punctuation characters, Tinytalk
will read only the first two if the rest are identical.
KEYBOARD ECHO
Your keystrokes will be spoken as words, as letters or not at all.
CURSOR TRACKING
When you move the cursor in a program, you will hear the text that it's
moving over. You will hear characters that you delete with either the
backspace or delete keys. You can hear lines, words, characters, or
lightbars.
FORM FILLING
When you're using a "fill-in-the-form" data entry screen, you can hear each
field prompt as you move to it, even when there are several fields on the
same line.
AUTOMATIC WINDOW READING
You can have windowed areas of the screen spoken automatically when they
change.
COLUMN HEADER READING
Tinytalk can automatically read column headings or titles as you move
around a spreadsheet or database browse screen.
HOT KEYS
You can review important parts of the screen from within an application
without going into review mode.
REVIEW AND CONTROL MODE
Tinytalk has a comprehensive screen review mode for moving around the
screen without disturbing an application program. In this mode, you can
also set synthesizer parameters like pitch and speed and set various
options for Tinytalk itself.
SHIFT ALERT
Tinytalk will buzz at you if you accidentally type in reversed case (hold
down one of the shift keys and type a letter while caps lock is on).
AUTOMATIC CLEARING
Tinytalk will automatically clear the speech buffer when you move the
cursor or when a window gets read. On the other hand, keyboard echo
doesn't clear the speech buffer, so you can type fast without hearing the
synthesizer choke.
MULTIPLE CONFIGURATIONS
Tinytalk can store up to 10 configurations (window definitions, mode
settings and the like). You can switch between configurations with a few
keystrokes.
AUTOMATIC CONFIGURATION LOADING
Tinytalk can automatically switch to the appropriate configuration when you
run an application, without requiring batch files or other tricks.
(continued)
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
Internet: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.orgEric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman) (01/23/91)
Index Number: 13158
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
WW> time. Wouldn't it be nice if all speech programs had the ability to
WW> spell out file names and save us the trouble of going into screen
WW> review
WW> or whatever method one uses to check spellings!
Well, I know of one that will spell out any "word" that contains numbers (see
subject line for name of program <grin>). It also comes in handy for reading
ham calls.
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
Internet: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org