Category: Geeks r Us
Hello to everyone,
It's been a long time goal of myne to accomplish a working copy of Windows 3.11 (under a virtual machine) which can be used by the blind both in dos and Windows mode.
In April, I started off with a windows 3.11 virtual machine in which I installed the OS and a sound-blaster driver. VM Ware can emulate sound-blaster (sb16), thus I hoped that I could install keynote gold/SAPI and have the OS working. Even Text Assist would have been a good choice, but alas...
When installing Text assist, the entire Virtual machine would exit with an error given by VMware on missing components. This meant that the sound blaster implemented in VMware was trivial at best, and somehow did not interface quite the same way with the speech synthesizers as it would with an actual sb16 card.
I had to find another method for succeeding. At this point, I uploaded my win 3.11 virtual machine (http://eurpod.com/vmware), and left to seak out some help.
Peter (pitermach) was also interested in getting this to work. He and I have collaborated before on things like hackintoshes and such, and he, too, was interested in getting this to work.
After 5 months, I believe we now have a solution.
Thanks to Peter, Tuukka Ojala, and others who may have contributed, we now have an emulated virtual serial synthesizer .
The synthesizer makes use of a python module called com0com, which relies on PySerial. Com0Com sets up a virtual com port which can be used across a VM, as it actually installs a device driver into your host OS. Not your guest, your host.
Through this, a script called BNS has been written which emulates a braille N speak in the guest OS. The BNS.py script simply estarts up e-speak and sends the commands generated by your guest OS' screen reader. The result is a totally working speech synthesizer which can be used in any virtual machine, so as long as you configure the com ports and the screen reader supports the braille n speak.
The Virtual Machine uses ASAP for dos screen reading. Launching win (windows 3.11) results in window-eyes 1.1 talking. Yes, 1.1. (2.1 is available from the NFB download page)
Of course, if you wanted to use another screen reader of your choice, simply remove it from within Dos (ASAP) and install that. You won't need sighted help now, since we have speech in Dos.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to my goal and dream. I truly appreciate the synergy and to put it humbly, without others this project would never have succeeded. The virtual speech synthesizer has many other potentials-E.G. With other operating systems, and more. If someone wants to take it to the next level, you could develop interfaces into SAPI or SVOX Pyco, however E-speak is a quite simple yet powerful open-source synthesizer which works quite well.
Anyway. To download:
Click here
or copy
http://eurpod.com/vmware/win31withspeech.rar
to your browser's address bar.
PLEASE, *please* read the readme file. Don't come and complain that it isn't working if you haven't read it, because it contains vital setup instructions.
All the best,
Tomi
note: While the legality of windows 3.1 is challengeable, I only do this out of a hobby and because it is an out-dated OS. Please do not sell or make any comercial gain out of this, or you may face legal /criminal penalties.
By next level, do you mean Windows 95?
The plot thickens.
Hi tomi,
I'm glad to hear and experience this wonderful goal of yours.
I've always wanted to play around with windows 3.1 just to check how things looked like back then. And its amazing to see how microsoft have progressed from windows 3.1 to windows 7.
I just wanted to say thanks for sharing the vm, instructions were great.
Also I want to say thanks for the synthisizer, I can now experience what it is like using a screen-reader in DOS.
Again, thanks a mill!
Regards,
Okay. I have a real Windows 3.1 and DOS machine as well as a real Windows 98 machine. Would I be able to use ESpeak and your program with one of those or does it only work with virtual machines? If not, will ESpeak work with Windows 98 or 3.1 and give me full access to DOS? If so, can I install Enhanced DR-DOS and use that instead of the MS-DOS that comes with Windows 98 and/or 3.1?
Btw, if I did get a virtual machine up and running, could I use a modern version of DOS with XP as my host?
To Eleni:
If the virtual machine runs on your newer DOS which according to some anyway, has all the new technologies without all the old restrictions (check that one), you'll be fine to run the VM from there probably as it has direct ports access.
To post 1:
If it did GPF like that and not lock you up, it was a virtual environment in more ways than one.
Good luck playing around with what we all couldn't wait to get rid of ... in the working world ... Networking sucketh tragically on Windows 3.11 the first Windows with a NOS (for kiddies not yet born or at least not potty trained when this stuff was out, that'd be Network Operating System, you used to have to separate the two).
See if you can dig up Netscape 3.0, the Shiva PPP dialer and an old 14.4 modem if you want it.
Methinks, since it's evening and both work and workout are done, I'm gonna get meself a pint instead. Mmm the B vitamins of a fine brewsky
I bet you could very easily find some of that on EBay. I'll check into virtual machines and DOS! I never thought of that.
Tiff, lol, we pointed this possibility out to you on 4 or 5 different occasions back in your dos quest days .. just saying.
Hey, keep it up, I am amused, I think it's utterly useless, but it is a hobby and hobbies are suppoed to be useless, so if you enjoy it, all the power to ya.
I'm not entirely against doing it but I really would prefer a real machine as opposed to a virtual one.
see, my reason for using this instead of a real machine is quite simple:
While I have a pentium II somewhere around here running Win95, it is a del machine and del was very propriotary back then. It has a weird neoMagic soundcard which wouldn't run under older OS's without crappy del drivers.
A virtual machine is simpler since it lets you experience an OS or environment with modern hardware purely through emulation. I can feel like back in the late 90s when I really did use Window-eyes 2.1 with a 386 machine running windows 3.11 .
As for networking goes (post 6?), it's easier than you think:
Zamba's VMware page
provides drivers for the NDIS AMD ethernet card emulated by vmware. It also has the tcp/ip stack so the only thing left to do is digging up netscape 3. Question is, how well did Window-eyes 2.0 support netscape, and if any websites would even work on that browser-simply put, did Java script even exist back then? Facebook would be out of the question, so would anything else modern-Hulu, Youtube, etc.
A few notes about the VM:
it can work in 64-bit windows, if you enable test mode. At a command prompt, type bcdedit set Signing on which should turn on the test signing mode on, allowing you to install the com0com driver.
I have the VM running wineyes 2.0 demo now. I'm trying to setup internet first and will re-post it once I have a working connection. :)
To Eleni:
This will not work on a real machine with dos, because we're emulating a comm port. The script simply uses e-speak as a synthesizer, meaning that it's almost like a link between the guest and the host operating systems: The guest sends commands to the virtual serial port which the host picks up and talks through e-speak.
All the best,
Tomi
Where is the nfb download page? When I google it, I get downloads from the Canadian National Film Board:)
Um?
OK unlike what you may believe, you actually have to have the Network Operating System NOS (Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and possibly Novell on DOS if you're using a Ethernet crard). Drivers aren't enough, especially if you want to share data between multiple machines.
You have to be able to register yourself on the network one way or the other, and TCP/IP is just the stack.
Stuff we never think of anymore because the NOS is part of the OS, bet you all have never seen the term 'Network Operating System' in real (outside of hobby) life ... because it's no longer a separate, and often conflict-ridden and resource-intensive solution.
Netscape *invented* Java script so yes starting with 2.0 I believe Java Script 1.1 was supported. I may be wrong, hell I just worked there and it's only fifteen years ago ...
As to the reader working with it? I imagine it must: JAWS 1.21 used to read it, you use the mouse pointer a lot but that's all we had. 'Accessible' wasn't even a word, or at least I'd never heard of it then ... so good luck with that ... Fondly look back on an archaic system that was before you were, create an artificial vision of what you think it was: shouldn't matter to those of us as had to live with it then, it's long gone for a reason.
The DR-DOS 7.03 manual, from Caldera, has a whole section devoted to personal netware and networking. Here's the chapter.
http://www.drdos.com/dosdoc/usergeng/03ugch3.htm
I'm not sure if it's the same with Windows 3.1, but apparently, you need a board and cables to do it. This is a physical network not an internet connection, so it may not be what you're seeking. I do know where to get drivers, dialers and the like for DOS but don't know about Windows 3.1. You should consider joining the Blind-L list. They have several current DOS users there, plus a few using Windows 95/98, so there may be a 3.1 user there too.
I'm probably not going to spend any large amount of time using this, but fair play for getting it all working.
It's only 90 megs or so, so I might just give it a download. I used 3.11 every weekend for about 2 years back when I had some sight, but it never spoke. Used to play this game called pauly python where you were this python and you had to move around this maiz eating mice.
Kept me entertained for hours at a time back in the day.
Anyone ever played this dos-baed game called Druglord?
The only computer game I got completely hooked on.
Never got it to run in a Windows GUI but Dos worked quite well.
Hi Tomi, you don't happen to have a copy of window bridge 2.56 disks with keys still left on them? or even jaws 2.0 with auth keys on the disk? Both products are not obtainable via "legal" means, since the folks that made window bridge are out of business and freedom scientific no longer supports jaws 2.0. thanks, Ryan Hutchings
I never used Windowbridge but I heard wonderful things about it, most importantly that it was able to go from Windows to DOS and back with a snap. That would be the ideal reader for testing both systems!
holy crappppppp! I'm gonna give this a download later, lol under egprs might take a long long long long time!
I'm... amused. I've grabbed this and may play with this just for old times sake, but dear god did I hate 3.1 back in the day. I remember loading it, running it for about half an hour, and going back to my dos prompt with relief. Much preferred my DOS.
Sorry for bringing this up, but I have finally decided to try this, and can't find pyserial anywhere. Can anyone give me a download link or something? Thanks.
com0com doesn't work in 64-bit windows 7. darn! I was gonna go back to the day when I was writing a letter in ms word version 5!