[Kde-accessibility] Linux, KDE, Audio Recording, Voice Recognition, & installation questions

[Robert Oschler]

Hello,

I recently added speech recognition to my open source Robosapien Dance Machine software, by creating a Windows DLL out of the Sphinx 3.5 recognition engine (another open source project on SourceForge).

I have done some Linux programming using Borland Kylix, on a SuSE 7.3 box running KDE 3.x, but have not done any "C" coding on Linux (tons of C/C++ experience on Windows).

I have never learned how to make a library with gcc. One that I could easily install on at least a few of the major Linux distros.  My main fear is library compatibility issues across platforms.

Now the Windows DLL I have is strictly "C" code.  I only have a few DEFINE's and INCLUDE statements that I have to modify to compile the code on Linux (I hope).  Unless of course there is a problem with supporting the "longjmp" style of exception handling ( *not* C++ exception handling.  As I said, it's all pure "C" code).

My secondary concern is cross-distro compatible audio recording.  Is there a really popular library that is prevalent on the major Linux distros, whose presence I can rely on?  If so which is it?  I'll need to be able to get the audio asynchronously instead of in batch.  I'll need the audio buffer by buffer as it comes in the microphone, not in bulk when the user has finished speaking..

Last, I don't mind being dependent on the presence of the KDE platform being part of my user audience's system.  Are there API's or toolkits in KDE that can help me with the audio recording, and the easy installation of my library?  If possible I'd like to be able to put out an installable binary in an easy to use RPM or other delivery package (never made an RPM myself yet).

I'm a veteran of all these issues on Windows boxes, but now I want to be at least capable of the same on Linux.  With this e-mail, I'm trying to avoid a long learning time or documentation hunt.

If this is the wrong place to ask these question, please direct me to a good place to start; web pages, forum, or Usenet group are welcome.

Thanks,
Robert Oschler
http://www.robodance.com/ - Robosapien Dance Machine