[Accessibility] Re: Updated requirements document (repost)

[Milan Zamazal]

>>>>> "PB" == Phil Buch <philsfree at free.fr> writes:

    PB> Just a few remarks about this nice document.

Thanks, Phil!

    >> 1. Design Criteria The Common TTS Driver Interface requirements
    >> will be developed within the following broad design criteria:
    >> 1.4. All language dependent functionality should be covered here,
    >> not in applications.

    PB> Sure ? Could you please provide an example of what you mean by
    PB> "language dependent" (as we can get it differently on the point
    PB> of view of our respective native languages) ?

The basic idea is that applications shouldn't be burdened with language
specific processing when issuing speech synthesis request.  For example,
application shouldn't care (unless necessary for a different purpose)
about splitting long texts into smaller pieces (which is language
dependent if it is to be done properly) or identifying word boundaries
for the purpose of generating word index marks.

    >> OPEN ISSUE: - Should an application be able to determine if
    >> SHOULD HAVE and NICE TO HAVE features are supported or not?

    PB> I think the driver shall answer reliably to such an information
    PB> request.

OK.

    >> 2.5. OUTSIDE SCOPE: Higher level communication interfaces (like
    >> IPC services or text protocols) to the speech synthesizer
    >> drivers.

    PB> Sorry to ask another basic question.  Which sort of text
    PB> protocol do you think about ? Any example ?

SSIP (see Speech Dispatcher).

    >> 4.9. SHOULD HAVE: A synthesizer should support notification of
    >> `mark' elements, and the application should be able to align
    >> these events with the synthesized audio.
    >> 
    >> 4.10. NICE TO HAVE: It would be nice if a synthesizer supported
    >> "word started" and "word ended" events and allowed alignment of
    >> the events similar to that in 4.8.

    PB> similar to that in 4.9

    >> Rationale: This is useful to update cursor position as a
    >> displayed text is spoken.  4.11. NICE TO HAVE: It would be nice
    >> if a synthesizer supported timing information at the phoneme
    >> level and allowed alignment of the events similar to that in 4.8.

    PB> similar to that in 4.9

Oops, thanks.

    >> 4.15. OUTSIDE SCOPE: Interfacing software synthesis with audio
    >> output.

    PB> Does FreeDesktop.org deal with this issue in another document ?

AFAIK it doesn't yet, but many of us are interested in this issue.

Regards,

Milan Zamazal

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