Category: Geeks r Us
I'm looking for a good screenreader to experiment within enhansed DR DOS. I know of vocalEyes, JAWS, Provox and Tinitalk. I saw one or two others but forget their names at the moment. From these, or including any that you might think of, which is the better choice? Which is flexible with good stability? Which, do you think, could handle a more modern os like the one I'll be using? Does anyone here know of an open source screenreader that can be used if none of these work as planned? Thanks. I know I could try them all but am trying to gauge perceptions and possibly get reviews of the different varieties. For the record, the only one I'm really familiar with is VocalEyes. I've toyed around with JAWS but not alot. Still, if it's at all similar to JFW I should be fine.
What is DR DOS?
DR Dos was originally created by Digital Research and was in major competition with Microsoft when dos was at it's peak. Digital Research basically created it when they realised that CP/M was losing the battle of operating systems.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DR-DOS
One of it's versions, 7.01, was made open source before they closed the code for the next one. The version I'm using is Enhanced DR-Dos, which is a modern-day creation, based off DR-Dos 7.01 and which aims to ultimately be a fully up-to-date operating system while still remaining compatible with older software.
http://www.drdosprojects.de/
As you can see here, the latest developments were only a few months ago. It's a 32-bit os which can handle large files and now works, experimentally, with usb. I'm really hoping it'll work with a screenreader cause it seems to be the best of both worlds.
Opa! the Provox screenreader is open source. Now I just have to find the latest version. I've heard good things about it too.
Its not up to date if theres only a 32 bit version, plus I bet it doesn't support 48 bit lba (Drives over 128 gb).
Why do you want open source screenreaders? Hal for dos is free although it requires a hardware synth; have a nose around www.yourdolphin.com
I want open source cause I'm using it on a modern system of dos and open source can be tweeked if necessary to meet the changes in the os or if it doesn't work out of the box with it. However, I'll definitely take a look at the regular programs. I've already got JAWS and Tinitalk and heard of one or two others a few days ago. I thought Hal for dos requires a Dolphin synth. Now that would be cool, a multilingual Apollo!