Re: [PATCH 2/2] gnu: Add espeak.

[Leo Famulari]

On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 10:27:13PM -0500, Leo Famulari wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2016 at 03:17:28PM +0100, Ludovic Courtès wrote:
> > Leo Famulari <address@hidden> skribis:
> > 
> > > * gnu/packages/audio.scm (espeak): New variable.
> > 
> > If you think eSpeak-ng is not ready yet, or is sufficiently different,
> > it’s OK to package eSpeak.
> 
> I'm looking into it.

I think it will be a great replacement for eSpeak, but it's not ready
yet, in my opinion. The new autotools-based build system has a lot of
kinks to work out and recent git HEADs don't build at all for me. When
it is ready we should package it.

> 
> > 
> > > +    (native-inputs
> > > +     `(("unzip" ,unzip)))
> > > +    (inputs
> > > +      `(("sonic" ,sonic)
> > 
> > The “unzip” line is misaligned.
> 
> The "unzip" line or the "sonic" line? Most of the patches I see use the
> former style.
> 
> > 
> > > +        ("pulseaudio" ,pulseaudio)
> > > +        ("portaudio" ,portaudio)))
> > 
> > Dunno if it’s useful to have both, maybe someone more knowledgeable like
> > Ricardo can answer?
> 
> I misinterpreted the configure options. It's not useful to have both. If
> PulseAudio is an input, then eSpeak will always use PulseAudio unless
> configured not to, in which case PulseAudio should not be an input.
> 
> PulseAudio stopped working completely on my Debian system a while ago.
> I decided to keep using ALSA and never looked back (or is it forward, in
> this case? ;)
> 
> So, if we are going to target PulseAudio, can a PulseAudio user test
> that this package works? This should make the computer speak "hello
> world":
> $ espeak "hello world"
> 
> > 
> > > +    (synopsis "Software speech synthesizer")
> > > +    (description "eSpeak is a compact software speech synthesizer for
> > > +English and other languages, for Linux and Windows.  eSpeak uses a
> >                               ^---------------------^
> > Remove.
> 
> Done.
> 
> > 
> > In general, we don’t mention proprietary software, and we don’t mention
> > other OSes, free or not, portability etc., because that’s not what
> > matters from the viewpoint of an OS provider.
> > 
> > The rest LGTM!
> 
> Again, I'll be grateful if a PulseAudio user will test!
> 
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Ludo’.
>