Re: [gnuspeech-contact] gnuspeech roadmap

[David Hill]

Hi Paul,

On Apr 2, 2011, at 7:27 PM, Paul Tyson wrote:

While working through David Hill's fine Synthesizer and Monet manuals, I
notice some differences between the gnustep windows and the screenshots
in the manuals.  From what I've read, there have been different changes
in the osx and gnustep ports from NeXT.  I don't have access to a Mac to
look at the osx version in action, so I can't tell what the differences
are, or determine what is the more advanced version.

The intention is to produce a differently illustrated manual for each of the three platforms, and correct any necessary editorial changes in the process. Each trunk should then have a documentation section with the appropriate version of the manual in it. The GNUStep version should be the same as the OS X version for all the components of the complete TTS system, including Monet and Synthesizer, except for the screen appearance though if there were good reasons for differences, there would be no reason to insist on this. Some changes have been made from the original NeXTStep implementation and at present the Monet and Synthesizer manuals more closely reflect the NeXTSTep version and should the relatively minor changes needed put in there along with the correct illustrations.

Is there a plan eventually to merge the gnuspeech codebases for osx and
gnustep, or will they remain separate and parallel?

It would be nice to merge the codebases for OS X and GNUStep, but for practical reasons we'll keep them separate, at least for now, and probably indefinitely. I do worry that this might introduce unacceptable differences between the two branches so if there is a good way to merge them, it might be worth doing. What do others think about this I wonder?

Should I try to make the gnustep Synthesizer app look and work like the
Synthesizer manual, or is there a more advanced design target?  Same
question for Monet.

The "Synthesizer" app, as implemented on OS X is very close to the original NeXTSTep version, which is what the manual currently illustrates, but the OS X version represents some improvements in things like the widgets used for the tube sliders, the spectrum display, and the appearance of windows (intended to meet Aqua standards). This was then directly ported to GNUStep by Marcelo and any differences, other than the GNUStep rather than Aqua standard, are not intended. Because the original OS X code was under development, and perhaps because it was based on xcode2, not everything that was working under OS X is working under GNUStep. Some further work is required to remove the bugs and to clean up the code, even on OS X. Also, a number of sub-features (mainly characteristic graph calculations & displays) have not yet been implemented even in the OS X version.

Monet changed rather more in the port from NeXTStep to OS X. Apart from matters of Aqua versus GNUStep, it should be should be the same on both OS X and GNUStep, and slightly different from the NeXTSTep version that is presented in the existing manual. This is probably something I should work on immediately if it is causing a problem. It is partly because the manuals differ slightly from the current OS X and GNUStep implementations that they are not yet in the repository.

I have a NeXT Cube, a Mac Pro running Snow Leopard 10.6.7 and a GNU/Linux box running Debian 6.0.0 "Squeeze" so am probably in as good a position as anyone to work on this for now, but once I put reasonable drafts into the repository, then they would be available for correction by anyone. They should really be in Texinfo form, but that introduces some significant extra work and problems, and therefore delay.

By the way, the Synthesizer manual is not in SVN.  I've been making some
editorial corrections to the Monet manual, which I could send to someone
on the development team to check in.

Thanks. Please send them to me for now.

HTH

All good wishes.

david

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David Hill

address@hidden

http://savannah.gnu.org/projects/gnuspeech

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