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

Gustav Degreef gustav97 at gmail.com
Thu Oct 21 17:48:26 BST 2021


Festival was not much of an improvement in voice quality.  Embrola, as 
you say, was too difficult to configure.  I'll check out Fenrir, and 
tdsr but the voice quality is TOTALLY secondary - a smoothly working 
jovie/espeak (or equivalent) is quite adequate to get things done.  
Which in theend is really the important thing. Gustav

On 10/21/21 1:56 PM, Jude DaShiell wrote:
> fenrir and tdsr are a couple more to check out and mbrola and festival can
> maybe help the human speech situation though not easily configured.
>
>
> On Thu, 21 Oct 2021, Gustav Degreef wrote:
>
>> 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.? ?
>>> 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.?????????Â
>>>>>> 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?????????????????????????????????????????????Â
>>>>>>>> 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?
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>
>>



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