Is there a project that is jovie successor? (fwd)

[Gustav Degreef]

Actually, Jovie replaced ktts quite some years ago.  Qtspeech is 
supposed to be a partial replacement, but there is no frontend program 
to manage the output of speechdispatcher (like Jovie).   e-speak works 
fine for me, but bothers everyne else who listens to my computer outptut 
(my partner and friends).  e-speak is clear enough, just does not sound 
like a person.  Good, I'll look into espeak-ng, thanks! Gustav

On 10/21/21 11:04 AM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> I had read somewhere ktts was supposed to have replaced jovie.  Also,
> espeak-ng is a successor to espeak.  It's good you got any of this
> working.
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2021 04:36:27
> From: Gustav Degreef <gustav97 at gmail.com> To: Simion
> <simion314 at gmail.com>, kde-accessibility at kde.org Subject: Re: Is there a
> project that is jovie successor?
>
> Hi Simion,
>
> Thanks for your input and effort.   I carefuly looked over everything you
> mentioned, including the script but it has taken me a long time.   I only have a
> rudimentary?  knowledge of scripts.    So modifying or writing scripts is beyond
> my current possibility, especially with my vision problems.   But it really
> helped me to look everything over.   I decided the best way was to go back to
> trying to install it from the opensuse repos.   I had failed the first time and
> created a great confusion in my setup. But it was a spare "test" setup on a
> separate partition.   I spent a lot of time cleaning up the repos, updating and
> cleaning up. And now Jovie works on opensuse 15.3!   The packages come from
> unofficial repos, but someone else with the tech knowhow has put it together. Â
> I am "forced" to upgrade soon, since the opensuse 15.2 EOL is soon.   But now I
> can move forward hopefully for another 1.5 years, the life of 15.3 until a
> better solution comes.   I hope you or someone else can help come up with a
> replacement for Jovie.   Thanks for your efforts.   Gustav.
> p.s. I'm posting back on the list in case it may help someone else.
>
> On 9/13/21 1:13 AM, Gustav Degreef wrote:
>> On 8/30/21 7:15 PM, Simion wrote:
>>> Hi Gustav,
>>> I personally would try to compile it, if I am unable I would try first a
>>> simple bash script, the issue with next script is that is not
>>> queuing????????  the tasks so you can get 2 speakers at the same time or you
>>> can edit the script to "killall" previous taks (so an application that runs
>>> in background would be needed to improve the experience)
>>>
>>> #! /bin/bash
>>>
>>> xclip -out -selection primary | xclip -in -selection clipboard
>>> xsel --clipboard | tr "\n" " " | espeak
>>> #end script
>>>
>>> or maybe python or nodejs
>>> I am tempted to write something to do some cleanup on the input,
>>> like when I want to read an entire reddit page of omments would be nice if I
>>> could????????  clean it up????????  first and remove all the "reply/report
>>> ..." buttons labels
>>> The reason I decided that in future I would use espeak is because in my
>>> current configuration jovie uses speech dispatcher and speech dispatcher uses
>>> espeak , Qt5 is a new extra layer so a new placed that could cause problems
>>> (but yes Qt5 would be nice to have if you plant to write a cross operating
>>> system desktop application).
>>>
>>> I have no plans to upgrade from my system soon,????????  maybe when I will
>>> upgrade my computer or I am forced to upgrade.
>>>
>>>
>>> You probably need to install and configure espeak, the language and speed,
>>> you can have a key bind to????????  run the script, you can modify the script
>>> to????????  add something like "killall espeak" to stop the previous
>>>
>>> Sorry I can't help more.
>>>
>>> Regards, Simion
>>
>> Hi Simion,
>>
>> Thanks for taking the time and for your effort.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> On 8/28/21 11:42 PM, Gustav Degreef wrote:
>>>> Hi Simion,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for your detailed reply.????????  I use opensuse leap 15.2 with KDE
>>>> plasma 5.18.6, Qt 5.12.7. ????????  Jovie continues to work fine even though
>>>> it has been deprecated.????????  However, it no longer works on opensuse
>>>> 15.3 and 15.2 end of life is in December this year. Someone has built
>>>> packages for Jovie on the Open Build Service of Suse, but I could not get it
>>>> to install properly, I think it's due to the Qt changes, I got a dependency
>>>> mess.
>>>>
>>>> I have been trying to find a replacement for Jovie for 3 years at least,
>>>> since it was clear it would no longer be maintained.????????  Read Aloud is
>>>> a plugin for Firefox that fills all the browser needs. Thunderbird also has
>>>> a Read Aloud plugin, but it only works for single emails and top posted
>>>> replies, list messages, etc.????????  It reads only from top to bottom
>>>> without being able to select only parts of the mail.????????  LibreOffice
>>>> has a text to speech plugin that even reads the clipboard contents, but it
>>>> is cumbersome.????????  Okular has a nice TTS function, but it often starts
>>>> two different simultaneous but voices of the same text which can't be
>>>> understood.????????  Sometimes id functions fine.????????  That is where I
>>>> use TTS the most, and periodically to read out error messages, text boxes
>>>> etc (for which Jovie is indispensable and for which I don't have an adequate
>>>> substitute).
>>>>
>>>> Any suggestions?????????  Perhaps to compile Jovie from a tar
>>>> binary?????????  Or are you seriously thinking of building a replacement for
>>>> Jovie? Thanks, Gustav.
>>>>
>>>> On 8/26/21 12:01 PM, Simion wrote:
>>>>> Hi, no problem ,
>>>>>
>>>>> btw my name is Simion no Simon, don't worry it is OK just want to mention
>>>>> it to prevent issues like typos in emails
>>>>>
>>>>> I still use Jovie, from my fork with a few crash fixes
>>>>> I have some scripts that I use directly espeak .
>>>>>
>>>>> I was not yet forced to give up on Jovie but my conclussion was to not use
>>>>> Qt if I have to write my own replacement,
>>>>>
>>>>> since I would not need some crossplatform solution I could probably make a
>>>>> python application , or even something that runs in the
>>>>> browser???????????????????????????????????????????  or nodejs.
>>>>>
>>>>> But for now on my distro I can still compile jovie , I have a keyboard with
>>>>> multipmedia keys so my workflow is to copy paste stuff in clipboard and
>>>>> using my keys I can play/pause/resume. I still use espeak as backend with
>>>>> voice speed set to max.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 8/26/21 12:37 PM, Gustav Degreef wrote:
>>>>>> Hello Simon,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I saw your old message on the accessibility
>>>>>> list.???????????????????????????????????????????  I also have serious eye
>>>>>> problems, though I am not
>>>>>> blind.???????????????????????????????????????????  I have been using Jovie
>>>>>> for most of my computer time for years and I am trying to find a
>>>>>> replacement for it.???????????????????????????????????????????  In my
>>>>>> situation a screen reader is not
>>>>>> suitable.??????????????????????????????????????????? Excuse me for writing
>>>>>> you directly.???????????????????????????????????????????  Can I ask you
>>>>>> more about this issue????????????????????????????????????????????  Gustav
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 5/12/18 10:18 AM, Simion wrote:
>>>>>>> Hello, So I know that jovie is not be ported to KDE5 and that the idea is
>>>>>>> to use QtSpeech, I can't find if someone started a replacement for jovie
>>>>>>> that uses QtSpeech yet.
>>>>>>> I plan to investigate QtSpeech and see if it works properly on Linux, if
>>>>>>> there is no such a project started is there any interest in it?
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>