The Slackware setup script for Emacspeak should create the needed
environment variables and install a script emacspeak that
starts emacs with emacspeak. This is your fourth option for learning
Emacs. This is the first time you will be able to actually use
Emacspeak. A short tutorial appears below. Within Emacs, you may
type C-h C-e to get a list of the commands. To search for a command,
use C-h a. To get an explanation for a key sequence, use C-h k.
There is also an info file which is part of the Emacspeak
distribution. Within emacs, you may type C-u C-h i, then enough
backspaces to delete the default path (that is, until the beep), then
"/usr/info/emacspeak.info". If you have the standalone
info program installed, you can consult the info file with the command
info Emacspeak.
All of the normal Emacs movement commands will speak the relevant information after moving. Here are some of the cursor movement functions that have been speech enabled. Note that this list only enumerates a few of these speech enabled commands; the purpose of emacspeak is to speech-enable all of emacs and provide you spoken feedback as you work. Thus, this list is here only as a representative example of the kind of speech-enabling extensions Emacspeak provides.
`C-n' or `M-x next-line' or `down' Moves the cursor to the next line and speaks it.
`C-p' or `M-x previous-line' or `up' Moves the cursor to the previous line and speaks it.
`M-f' or `M-x forward-word' or Moves the cursor to the next word and speaks it. Places point on the first character of the next work, rather than on the space preceding it (This is my personal preference).
`M-b' or `M-x backward-word' Moves the cursor to the previous word and speaks it.
`M-C-b' or `M-x backward-sexp' Moves the cursor to the previous sexp and speaks it. If the sexp spans more than a line, only the first line is spoken.
`M-<' or `M-x beginning-of-buffer' Speaks line moved to.
`M->' or `M-x end-of-buffer' Speaks line moved to.
`M-m' or `M-x back-to-indentation' Speaks entire current line. A useful way of hearing the current line.
Emacspeak provides a number of commands for reading portions of the current buffer, getting status information, and modifying Emacspeak's state.
All of the commands are documented in the subsequent sections. They can be classified into types:
Emacspeak commands for listening to chunks of information. The names of these commands all start with the common prefix `emacspeak-'. All Emacspeak commands are bound to the keymap EMACSPEAK-KEYMAP and are accessed with the key `Control e'. Thus, the Emacspeak command "emacspeak-speak-line" is bound to `l' in keymap EMACSPEAK-KEYMAP and can be accessed with the keystroke `Control-e l'.
Here are some of the commands for reading text:
`C-e c' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-char' Speak current character, using the phonetic alphabet.
`C-e w' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-word' Speak current word.
`C-e l' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-line' Speak current line. With prefix `C-u', speaks the rest of the line from point. With negative prefix `C-u -', speaks from start of line to point. Voicifies if voice-lock-mode is on. Indicates indentation with a tone if audio indentation is in use. Indicates position of point with an aural highlight if option emacspeak-show-point is turned on --see command `M-x emacspeak-show-point'.
`C-e .' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-sentence' Speak the current sentence.
`C-e C-c' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-current-window' Speak everything in the current window.
`C-e =' or `M-x emacspeak-speak-current-column' State the column where point is.
The second category of commands provided by Emacspeak manipulate the state of the speech device. The names of these commands start with the common prefix `dtk-'. You can access these commands via the prefix `Control-e d'. Thus, the command "dtk-set-rate" is bound to `r' in keymap EMACSPEAK-DTK-SUBMAP and can be executed by pressing `Control e d r'.
`C-e s' or `M-x dtk-stop' Stop speech now. In addition, any command that causes speech output will discard anything in the speech buffer.
`C-e d I' or `M-x dtk-toggle-stop-immediately-while-typing' Toggle state of variable dtk-stop-immediately-while-typing. As the name implies, if true then speech flushes immediately as you type.
`C-e d i' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-audio-indentation' Toggle state of Emacspeak audio indentation. Specifying the method of indentation as `tone' results in the DECtalk producing a tone whose length is a function of the line's indentation. Specifying `speak' results in the number of initial spaces being spoken.
`C-e d k' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-character-echo' Toggle state of Emacspeak character echo (that is, whether typed characters are echoed).
`C-e d w' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-word-echo' Toggle state of Emacspeak word echo (initially on).
`C-e d l' or `M-x emacspeak-toggle-line-echo' Toggle state of Emacspeak line echo (that is, whether typed text is echoed after typing enter).
`C-e d p' or `M-x dtk-set-punctuations' Set punctuation state. Possible values are `some', `all', or `none'.
`C-e d q' or `M-x dtk-toggle-quiet' Toggle state of the speech device between being quiet and talkative. Useful if you want to continue using an emacs session that has emacspeak loaded but wish to make the speech shut up.
`C-e d R' or `M-x dtk-reset-state' Restore sanity to the Dectalk. Typically used after the Dectalk has been power cycled.
`C-e d SPC' or `M-x dtk-toggle-splitting-on-white-space' Toggle state of emacspeak that decides if we split text purely by clause boundaries, or also include whitespace.
`C-e d r' or `M-x dtk-set-rate' Set speaking rate for the dectalk.
`C-e d s' or `M-x dtk-toggle-split-caps' Toggle split caps mode. In split caps mode, a transition from lower case to upper case is treated like the beginning of a new word. This is useful when reading Hungarian notation in program source code.
`C-e d v' or `M-x voice-lock-mode' Toggle Voice Lock mode (initially off). When Voice Lock mode is enabled, text is voiceified as you type it, as follows:
voice-lock-comment-personality;
(That is a variable whose value should be a personality name.)voice-lock-string-personality.voice-lock-doc-string-personality. voice-lock-function-name-personality. voice-lock-keywords.`C-e d V' or `M-x emacspeak-dtk-speak-version' Use this to find out which version of the Dectalk firmware you have.