Club Amiga de Montreal - CAM/CAM_CD_1.iso/files/131.lha/AMIGATALK.DOC

Text File | 1986-11-21 | 15KB | 361 lines

                    AmigaTalk     version 2.0K


          Copyright (C) 1987/88 by Dexter (Chip) Orange

3227 Rain Valley Ct.
Tallahassee, FL.  32308


Home: [phone]
Work: [phone]
CompuServe: 71450,1162

     I also run a BBS called the Orange Tree where comments/questions are always
welcome and the latest version of AmigaTalk can be found at:

[phone] from 10:00 pm to 6:0 am daily (EST)






     AmigaTalk is a program for the Commodore Amiga designed to allow blind
users to make full use of the Amiga. It performs two main functions:
The first is to say all text written to the current window using the Amigas
built-in speech capability, and to buffer this text, so the user may later
make enquires as to what text is currently on the window.  The second is to allow
the user to interact with Intuition features which normally require the use
of the mouse, by using the keyboard instead.
These Intuition features include: the selection of screens,
the selection of windows, the selection of menu items, and the selection of gadgets.

          Using AmigaTalk


     In order to get AmigaTalk started, you need to type the following two commands from a CLI prompt:

STACK 10000
RUN AMIGATALK


     The first command sets the stack size for programs to a more reasonable
value of 10K (the default is 4K).  The second command actually starts AmigaTalk
running as a background task.  Within a few seconds of typing the RUN command
you should hear AmigaTalk announce itself along with its version number.
If you did not, have someone who can see check the screen to see if there is an
error message such as "AMIGATALK NOT FOUND".  You should place AmigaTalk
in your C: directory along with your other AmigaDOS commands.  If there is no
error message, but you still didn't hear anything, check the audio cables
which should run from the back of your Amiga into the back of your monitor.
     Once you have heard AmigaTalk announce itself, it will then say anything
written to the current window.  Just how it says it brings up the next subject.
When AmigaTalk is first run, it looks for two optional files in the DEVS:
directory called "TRANSLATOR.EXCEPTIONS" and "AMIGATALK.EXCEPTIONS".  Both of
these files contain "exception tables" for AmigaTalk to use, and could be combined
into a single file, I have separated them into two files only for the convenience
of another public domain program I have written called "BetterSpeech".
Anyway, an exception table is a file containing many pairs of lines, the first
in each pair is the exception, and the second is its alternate pronunciation.  This lets you have
words which are normally mis-pronounced by the Amigas speech routines, pronounced
properly.  You can use the text editor supplied with Amiga to edit these
tables, and a quick look at the sample ones provided should give you the feel
of how to form a replacement when one is needed.  I have put commonly mis-
pronounced words in the Translator.exceptions file because that is what BetterSpeech
uses, and I have put exceptions peculiar to a blind programmer in the AmigaTalk.exceptions
file. ONe of these types I consider peculiar to a blind programmer (or actually any blind user) is the list of
punctuation characters.  If a punctuation character is encountered as the first
thing on an exception line, AmigaTalk places it in a special punctuation exception
table, and whenever that character is encountered in the future, the replacement
you gave it will be said instead.  This means that you can have any punctuation
character said exactly the way you want, or by not giving it an entry at all,
it will not be said at all.
     Currently, if you make changes to these files, the only way to make them
take effect is to stop AmigaTalk, and then re-start it.  You can do this by
re-bototing your Amiga of course, or by using the BREAK command to send AmigaTalk
a break signal.  In order to do this you need to know its CLI task number.  You can get this by using
the STATUS command which will show you all tasks, and their task numbers.
Once you have this (it will usually be 2) you can type:

BREAK 2

Or whatever the task number in place of 2.  AmigaTalk will say "END AMIGATALK"
and unload itself, You can then type the RUN AMIGATALK command to get it started again
and the new exceptions will be loaded.
Currently, the total limit for non-punctuation exceptions is 100, so be a little
careful as to what you define as an exception. The reason for this limit is largely
one of memory usage.  AmigaTalk, along with the Translator library and Narrator device, uses
about 110 K, and so its pretty tight if you have an Amiga with only 512K.
You will probably find that if you only have 512K and AmigaTalk, that there are many programs
you simply won't be able to run, so I highly reccommend at least 1 MB of memory.




          AmigaTalk commands:



     While using AmigaTalk normally from within an application, there are four
commands which you can give it:

     The Quiet Key

The quiet key is the left-Amiga key, and will immediately
quiet the speech for the current line and go onto the next line.

     The Speech Toggle key

The speech toggle key is the tilde key, and is used
to turn the speech on/off.  When ever you use it, AmigaTalk will
immediately quiet any speech and announce the new status
(on or off) of the speech.  Turning the speech off
does not remove AmigaTalk from memory, or stop it from performing its other functions,
it simply won't say things as they are written to the current window.

     Review MOde

You can use the alt-r key to enter the review mode (see below
for documentation on regview mode commands).  Review mode
allows you to review what text is on the current window, and also how it is spoken.


     Exploring Intuition Mode


You can explore Intuition features such as screens, windows, menus, and
gadgets by entering the Intuition mode with the alt-E command.
(see below for documentation on exploring intuition commands).


     Caps On/Off key

The caps on/off key is not an AmigaTalk command, however it will announce its
new state each time you press it.





                    REVIEW MODE COMMANDS:


     Once you enter review mode AmigaTalk will announce
"enter review mode" and until you leave, the keyboard is now taken over
and used solely to give review mode commands.  These commands are:


A - turn on  all lines (see "O" command for explanation)
B - say the character at thte current review position and move the position
    one back (to the left)
C - say the character at the current review position and move the position
    one forward (to the right)
D - move the review position down one line
E - move review position to end of line
H - move review position to home (top left) of window
L - say current line
o - turn current line on/off.  If a line is turned off, then text written
    to that line will not be spoken.  This is handy for programs which keep
    a display of the current time on some line, or some other running counter,
    which you don't want to constantly hear.
P - give current review position (top left is line 1 column 1)
Q - quit review mode and return to your application
S - toggle between spelling and normal mode.  When in spelling mode, capitol
    letters will be said in a higher voice.  (currently when in spelling mode
    the quiet key does not work, hopefully that will be fixed soon)
U - move review position up one line
< - slow speaking rate down a little
> - increase speaking rate a little
[cr] - return review position to beginning of line


     It should be noted that when in review mode, speech written to the current
window (actualy to any window) will not be said, but application will continue
to run normally.  This can be very handy if you simply want to check on the progress
of some program without hearing all the output it generates.  You can simply go into
review mode and get positioned on the line of interest, and then from time to time,
use the "L" command to see whats on that line.  I do this for instance when
downloading (capturing) messages from CompuServe  to check to see when all the
messages have been listed.  Also note that if you leave review mode while spelling,
everything will continue to be spelled until you go into review mode and set it
to normal.




                    Exploring Intuition Features:


     When you enter the Intuition mode with the ALT-E command, just like the
review mode, output written to the current window will no longer be said,
but the application will still continue to run normally with the exception that
the keyboard is now used to give AmigaTalk Intuition mode commands.
     These commands however, are more complicated, involving many different levels
of interaction.


     Screen Mode

     If there is more than one screen active when you enter Intuition mode,
you will be placed initially in screen mode and the title of the current
screen will be announced.  There are only a few commands which can be used from
within screen mode (there just isn't much you can do with a screen) and they are:

N - go to next screen
Q - Quit Intuition mode (returning to application)
W - enter window mode for the windows in this screen



As you cycle through the various screens, each screen's title will be anounced
and it will be made the currently active screen and brought to the front of the
display.  If there is only one screen active when you enter Intuition mode,
you will be immediately placed into window mode for its windows, and when you leave window mode,
you will return to your application.



     Window Mode


     Window mode is similar to screen mode in that it lets you cycle through
all  the windows in a particular screen, announcing the title of each, and making
it the currently active window and bringing it to the front of that screen.
The set of window mode commands however, is a little more substantial:


G - enter gadget mode for this window (explore its gadgets)
M - enter menu mode for this window (explore its menus)
N - go to next window in this screen
P - give mouse position report relative to top left of current window
Q - quit window mode (returning either to screen mode, or to your application)
R - enter requester mode (explore the requester blocking this window)


Note that some programs do not title their windows, so when you select a  new
window, all you will hear is "window" and no title.



     Gadget Mode


     Exploring gadgets for a window works similarly to exploring windows for
a screen.  Each time you select a new gadget, the mouse pointer will move
to that gadget, and AmigaTalk will announce what type of gadget this is, and say
any text in that gadget.  Once you have selected the gadget you wish, simply
back yourself all the way out tof Intuition mode and then press the left mouse button
to activate that gadget.
     Gadget mode commands are:


N - go to next gadget
Q - quit gadget mode (returning to window mode)


          Menu Mode


     Going into menu mode allows you to explore and manipulate
any menus which may be attached to the current window.  You can
basically find out what options are there, and define keyboard shortcuts if they
don't have any, but you must wait until you leave intuition mode to issue
the keyboard shortcut necessary to trigger a specific item.
While in menu mode there is no visual indication on the screen
as to what you are doing.  Menu mode commands are:


I - explore the items of this menu
N - go to next menu in menu-bar
Q - quit menu mode and return to window mode


     Item mode commands:


D - define a keyboard shortcut character for this item
N - go to next item in list
Q - quit item mode and return to menu mode
S - explort sub-items for this item



     Sub-Item commands:


D - define a keyboard shortcut character for this sub-item
N - go to next sub-item in list
Q - quit sub-item mode and return to item mode


     Note that playing with menus can get complicated since a menu-bar
strip can have many menus, each menu can have many items, and each item can have many
sub-items.  Also note that AmigaTalk does not check
to see that the shortcut character you define hasn't already been used somewhere else
in these menus, you must do that before defining one.
AmigaTalk will announce any shortcut character which already exists before saying the text
of any item/sub-item.  Therefore, if you hear something like:
"H hangup" you will know that the "H" is the shortcut.
(In case you aren't familiar with shortcuts, they are a way of choosing menu items/sub-items
without involking the menu and using the mouse to select an option.  You simply hold down the
right-Amiga key and press the shortcut character and that wil activate the associated
menu choice).



          Requester mode


     A requester is really a special kind of window which blocks a window
you are trying to use.  If when you go into window mode it says that
window is in request mode, you should go into request mode to hear the text of the requester,
and then use the "G" command from within request mode to explore its gadgets to select the
one you wish to trigger.  Request mode commands are:


G - explore the gadgets for this requester
N - go to next requester blocking this window
Q - quit requester mode and return to window mode


     I realize that this whole intuition business is quite confusing when used
from within AmigaTalk, and any suggestions as to how it could be made easier will be appreciated.  Just try
to remember that the Amiga can have many screens open at once (but only one active),
each screen can have many windows open at once (but again, only one active), each window
can have a menu-bar, a list of gadgets, and a list of requesters for it.  Each menu-bar can have many
menus, each menu can have many items, and each item can have many sub-items, but you can only select
an item/sub-item from all of this.





          Revision History:



2.0K -- original release





          Things I would like to do in the future:

o - Add a work bench interface to allow the selection of icons
o - Allow better interaction with proportional gadgets
o - Allow better interaction with string gadgets
o - Allow the user to change the AmigaTalk command keys
o - allow the definition of specific regions of a window which can be read
    at a single keystroke instead of having to enter review mode and then find that region
o - define word forward/backward movement commands in review mode