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|
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<title>Tips And Tricks For The Emacspeak Audio Desktop
</title>
<meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.18">
</head>
<body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF">
<div id="c83b1" class="article">
<div class="titlepage">
<h1 class="title"><a name="c83b1">Tips And Tricks For The Emacspeak Audio Desktop
</a></h1>
<h3 class="author">T. V. Raman</h3>
<p class="copyright">Copyright © 2001 by T. V. Raman</p>
<p>
This work is being made available under the same
copyright as that used by the Linux Documentation
Project see
<a href="http://www.linuxdoc.org/LDP-COPYRIGHT.html">
LDP Copyright Notice </a>.
</p>
<div class="abstract">
<p><a name="c83b1ab9"></a><b>Abstract</b></p>
<p>
<img src="http://emacspeak.sf.net/emacspeak.jpg" align="center">
</p>
<p>
This document is a collection of productivity tips
for using the Emacspeak audio desktop. Make sure
you listen to this document with punctuation mode
set to <i>all</i> to ensure that you
do not miss important concepts. Note that this
document is to be used in concert with the built-in
online help facilities. Toward this end, the first
section gives help on using Emacs online help;
subsequent sections are intentionally brief since
the interested user is expected to lookup the
details of a command using these facilities.
See <a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html">How
To Ask Questions The Smart Way</a>
for how you can improve your own productivity while
contributing to continuously improving the tools you
rely on for your work.
</p>
<p>
The latest copy of this document is always available via CVS
from the Emacspeak CVS repository ---thanks to the
<img src="http://sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=2238;type=1">
--- SourceForge project and on the
<a href="http://emacspeak.sf.net/tips.html">Emacspeak
WWW site</a>.
</p>
</div>
<hr>
</div>
<div class="qandaset">
<dl>
<dt>1. <a href="#help">Online Help</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>1.1. <a href="#c83b1b1ab2"> Interactive help.</a></dt>
<dt>1.2. <a href="#c83b1b1ab3"> Online hypertext help.</a></dt>
<dt>1.3. <a href="#c83b1b1ab4"> Opening info page that documents a given key.</a></dt>
<dt>1.4. <a href="#c83b1b1ab5"> Opening info page that documents a given command. </a></dt>
<dt>1.5. <a href="#c83b1b1ab6"> Picking from available choices.</a></dt>
<dt>1.6. <a href="#c83b1b1ab7"> Minibuffer prompting and completion.</a></dt>
<dt>1.7. <a href="#c83b1b1ab8">Customizing Emacs And Emacspeak</a></dt>
<dt>1.8. <a href="#c83b1b1ab9">Browsing UNIX Man Pages</a></dt>
<dt>1.9. <a href="#c83b1b1ac10">Browsing Linux HOWTO Documentation.</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>2. <a href="#folders">Files And Folders</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>2.1. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b2"> Working on files and folders.</a></dt>
<dt>2.2. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b3"> Working with remote directories.</a></dt>
<dt>2.3. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b4">Locating files.</a></dt>
<dt>2.4. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b5"> Using UNIX find from within Emacs.</a></dt>
<dt>2.5. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b6"> Searching all files in a directory hierarchy. </a></dt>
<dt>2.6. <a href="#c83b1b1b1b7"> Search and replace across a collection of files. </a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>3. <a href="#read">Reading, Browsing And Skimming</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>3.1. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b2"> Hiding and exposing text blocks. </a></dt>
<dt>3.2. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b3">Skipping across blank lines</a></dt>
<dt>3.3. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b4">Everything is
searchable.</a></dt>
<dt>3.4. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b5">Saving positions in a file.</a></dt>
<dt>3.5. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b6">Working with different portions of
a file at the same time.</a></dt>
<dt>3.6. <a href="#c83b1b1b2b7">Accumulating Annotations While Reading</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>4. <a href="#status">State Of The Emacspeak Audio Desktop</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>4.1. <a href="#c83b1b1b3b2">Hearing The Current Context
</a></dt>
<dt>4.2. <a href="#c83b1b1b3b3">Information conveyed by
command emacspeak-speak-mode-line</a></dt>
<dt>4.3. <a href="#c83b1b1b3b4">Information conveyed by command emacspeak-speak-minor-mode-line</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>5. <a href="#c83b1b1b4">Multimedia On The Emacspeak Audio
Desktop</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>5.1. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b2">Setting State Of The Auditory Display</a></dt>
<dt>5.2. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b3">Playing audio CDs</a></dt>
<dt>5.3. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b4">Playing MP3 using
mpg123</a></dt>
<dt>5.4. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b5">Playing MP3 files with freeamp</a></dt>
<dt>5.5. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b6">Setting up music playlists</a></dt>
<dt>5.6. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b7">Playing Realaudio Streams</a></dt>
<dt>5.7. <a href="#c83b1b1b4b8">Streaming media presets</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
<dt>6. <a href="#c83b1b1b5">Authoring Tools</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl></dl>
</dd>
<dt>7. <a href="#c83b1b1b6">Electronic Messaging</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl></dl>
</dd>
<dt>8. <a href="#c83b1b1b7">System Management And System
Administration</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl></dl>
</dd>
<dt>9. <a href="#c83b1b1b8">Emacspeak Utilities</a></dt>
<dd>
<dl>
<dt>9.1. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b2">
Launch a root shell.</a></dt>
<dt>9.2. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b3">Emacspeak Clipboard</a></dt>
<dt>9.3. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b4">Copying current file.</a></dt>
<dt>9.4. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b5">Personal telephone directory.</a></dt>
<dt>9.5. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b6">Tabbulating shell command output.</a></dt>
<dt>9.6. <a href="#c83b1b1b8b7">Filtering specific columns of all lines.</a></dt>
</dl>
</dd>
</dl>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="help">1. Online Help</a></h3>
<p>
Tips on using Emacs online help facilities.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab2"><b>1.1. </b> Interactive help.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Online documentation is accessed using commands available on key
<b>C-h</b>. The
type of help obtained is determined by the
keypress following <b>C-h</b>.
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
<b>c</b>
looks up command run by a given key.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<b>k</b>
looks up documentation for a given key.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<b>w</b>
looks up key that invokes specified command.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab3"><b>1.2. </b> Online hypertext help.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Invoke the online hypertext help system
(<b>info</b>) by pressing
<b>C-h i</b>.
Press <b>h</b> when
using Info to
obtain a primer for first time users.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab4"><b>1.3. </b> Opening info page that documents a given key.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Press <b> C-h C-k </b>followed
by the key whose documentation you wish to
locate.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab5"><b>1.4. </b> Opening info page that documents a given command. </a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Press <b>C-h
C-f</b>
and specify the command name when prompted.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab6"><b>1.5. </b> Picking from available choices.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Hitting <b>tab</b>
causes Emacs to complete the currently typed input as far as
possible.
If there is more than one choice available, Emacspeak plays
auditory icon <i>help</i>
and speaks the available choices. At this point, you can
input more characters to unambiguously specify the
choice. Alternatively, you can browse the
completion list which is typically displayed in
another window in a buffer called
<tt>*Completions*</tt>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab7"><b>1.6. </b> Minibuffer prompting and completion.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Emacs uses the <i>minibuffer</i> when
prompting for user input.
When using completion in the minibuffer by
hitting <b>tab</b>,
you can switch to the
<tt>*Completions*</tt>
buffer by pressing command <b>C-o</b>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab8"><b>1.7. </b>Customizing Emacs And Emacspeak</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Emacspeak can now be customized using
custom and this is
the recommended way for users new to Emacs to
customize Emacs and Emacspeak. Command
<b>emacspeak-customize</b> invokes
Emacs' customize interface for customizing
Emacspeak. Use
custom to customize
Emacs packages that support this feature. Note
that not all Emacs packages are fully
customizable via
custom.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ab9"><b>1.8. </b>Browsing UNIX Man Pages</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use Emacs command <b>man</b>
to view UNIX manual pages using a speech-enabled
interface. This interface provides structured
browsing which is something missing when viewing
UNIX man pages inside a traditional pager program.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1ac10"><b>1.9. </b>Browsing Linux HOWTO Documentation.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use command
<b>emacspeak-speak-browse-linux-howto</b>
to browse Linux HOWTO documentation installed on your
system.
The command opens the specified HOWTO file and
sets things up so you can use Emacs' outline facilities to
browse the document.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="folders">2. Files And Folders</a></h3>
<p>
This section contains tips on working efficiently
with files and folders, both local and remote.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b2"><b>2.1. </b> Working on files and folders.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use command <b>
dired</b>
(directory editor) normally bound to
<b>
C-x d </b>
to operate on files and folders.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b3"><b>2.2. </b> Working with remote directories.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b> Built-in Emacs package
ange-ftp
provides seamless access to remote files and folders by
using UNIX <b>ftp</b>
behind the scenes.
To open a remote directory, specify the directory location as
<b>/username@host:/path</b>
when prompted by command <b>dired</b>.
Note that in the above,
<i>username</i>
defaults to <i>anonymous</i>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b4"><b>2.3. </b>Locating files.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use <b>locate</b>
and <b>
locate-with-filter</b> to
find files and folders on your hard drive.
Matching files and folders are displayed using
the same interface as provided by command
<b>dired</b>. These
commands use the
locate database that
is typically rebuilt nightly on standard Linux
systems.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b5"><b>2.4. </b> Using UNIX <b>find</b> from within Emacs.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use commands <b>
find-name-dired</b>, <b>find-grep-dired</b> and
<b>find-dired</b> to use UNIX
find to locate files
and folders on your hard drive.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b6"><b>2.5. </b> Searching all files in a directory hierarchy. </a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Install and use Emacs package
igrep
---an extended Emacs interface to UNIX
grep
to search all files in a directory.
For simpler tasks use command
<b>grep-dired</b> and command <b>find-grep-dired</b>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b1b7"><b>2.6. </b> Search and replace across a collection of files. </a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
When working on a project consisting of many files,
build a tags table using UNIX command
<b>etags</b>
and use it to advantage from within Emacs with commands such
as
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td><b>find-tag</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>tags-search</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>tags-query-replace</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="read">3. Reading, Browsing And Skimming</a></h3>
<p>
This section contains tips for efficiently working with
large amounts of content using speech output.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b2"><b>3.1. </b> Hiding and exposing text blocks. </a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
You can hide <i>blocks of text</i>
when skimming a file.
A <i>block of text</i>
is defined as a sequence of contiguous lines starting with
a common prefix e.g., cited lines in an email message or blocks of
comments in programming languages.
See commands
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td> <b> C-e j</b>
<b> emacspeak-hide-or-expose-block</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td> <b>C-e C-j</b>
<b> emacspeak-hide-speak-block-sans-prefix</b>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
to use these features.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b3"><b>3.2. </b>Skipping across blank lines</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use commands
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-skip-blank-lines-backward</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-skip-blank-lines-forward</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
to move across contiguous blank lines.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b4"><b>3.3. </b><i>Everything</i> is
searchable.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Everything
is <i>searchable</i>
in Emacs. Use this to advantage when working with all forms
of content, since it is often more efficient to
use Emacs commands
<b><b>C-s</b></b>
and <b><b>C-r</b></b>
to perform forward or backward incremental search to locate
relevant information than to listen to the content.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b5"><b>3.4. </b>Saving positions in a file.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Use Emacs <i>mark</i> to save temporary
positions in a file.
Use built-in Emacs bookmark
to save the position across Emacs sessions. Use built-in
Emacs package desktop
to have Emacs automatically recreate the state of the audio
desktop on restart.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b6"><b>3.5. </b>Working with different portions of
a file at the same time.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Display the file in different Emacs
<i>windows</i>
or <i>frames</i>;
Emacs allows you to display different portions
of the file in each window or frame. Use Emacspeak commands
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-speak-predefined-window</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-speak-this-buffer-other-window-display</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-speak-this-buffer-previous-display</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-speak-this-buffer-next-display</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
to listen to a given portion of a file whilst working on a
different portion of the same file.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b2b7"><b>3.6. </b>Accumulating Annotations While Reading</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
It is often useful to be able to jot down comments or notes
while reading a large document.
Rather than switching back and forth between the document
you are reading and the document where the
comments are being joted down, you can use
Emacspeak utility
<b>emacspeak-annotate-add-annotation</b> --see
that command's online documentation for details on
its use.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="status">4. State Of The Emacspeak Audio Desktop</a></h3>
<p>This section contains tips on querying and updating
the status of the Emacspeak audio desktop.
See section
<a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/info/emacspeak.html#SEC20">
status commands</a>
in the Emacspeak online manual for additional details.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b3b2"><b>4.1. </b>Hearing The Current Context
</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
<i>Emacs buffers</i> are the building bloks of the
Emacspeak audio desktop. Current context is
thus determined by the <i>current
buffer</i> ---i.e., the buffer with which the
user is presently interacting. The state of the
<i>current buffer</i> is continuously
updated visually by Emacs on the
<i>modeline</i> (see the Emacs online
tutorial for details on the visual display)---
the status is spoken by Emacspeak whenever
there is a context change. You can explicitly
request this context information using command
<b>emacspeak-speak-mode-line</b>;
additional details are provided by command
<b>emacspeak-speak-minor-mode-line</b>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b3b3"><b>4.2. </b>Information conveyed by
command <b>emacspeak-speak-mode-line</b></a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Command
<b>emacspeak-speak-mode-line</b> is
optimized to convey the most relevant
information first. Different user options
control additional status information that may
be spoken by this command. When possible, this
command uses tones, midi icons and auditory
icons to make the spoken feedback more succinct.
Here is a brief summary listing the various
items of status information conveyed by command
<b>emacspeak-speak-mode-line</b>:
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td>
which-function
When <b>which-function-mode</b> is activated
using command <b>emacspeak-toggle-which-function</b>,
the name of the function containing the cursor is
spoken. This is useful in programming modes.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
mail-alert
Produces an auditory icon indicating newly arrived mail and
is controlled via command
<b>emacspeak-toggle-mail-alert</b>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
buffer-modified
An auditory tone when the contents of the <i>current</i>
buffer has been modified since it was last
saved.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
buffer-read-only
An auditory tone when the <i>current</i>
buffer is <i>read-only</i>.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
buffer-name
The <i>name</i> of the current buffer.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
line-number
Current <i>line number</i> when <b>line-number-mode</b>
is active.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
column-number
Current <i>column number</i> when
<b>column-number-mode</b> is
active.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
mode-name
Name of the buffer's <i>major mode</i> ---this is
what determines <i>specialized
behavior</i>
within Emacs buffers.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
percentage
<i>Percentage</i> of point into the current
buffer.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
frame-info
If more than one <i>Emacs frame</i> is active, then
the title of the current frame is
spoken. Emacs typically uses multiple frames
when running in a graphical environment.
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
recursion-info
Current recursion level when <i>recursive edit</i> is
in progress; note that you enter
<i>recursive edit</i> in Emacs in very
few specialized cases.
</td>
</tr>
</table>
Finally, note that the feedback is designed using the
principle <i>no news is good news</i>,
thus, in many cases the absence of a cue is itself a cue.
As an example, Emacspeak produces an auditory tone only if a
buffer is <i>read-only</i>
--the absence of the tone indicates the buffer can be
editted which is usually the case.
Similarly, no tone is produced when a buffer does not need saving.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b3b4"><b>4.3. </b>Information conveyed by command <b>emacspeak-speak-minor-mode-line</b></a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Command
<b>emacspeak-speak-minor-mode-line</b>
typically conveys additional information
including:
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td>Minor modes that are active e.g.,
<i>voice-lock</i></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Version number of files under revision control.</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Current encoding system in use.</td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="c83b1b1b4">5. Multimedia On The Emacspeak Audio
Desktop</a></h3>
<p>
This section contains tips on using the various
multimedia features of the Emacspeak audio
desktop.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b2"><b>5.1. </b>Setting State Of The Auditory Display</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
The state of the auditory display can be set and
updated using command
<b>emacspeak-aumix</b>. The
available settings depend on the sound card in
use. Note that command
<b>emacspeak-aumix</b> is a
convenient means to using the underlying
<b>aumix</b> utility. To set and
save the auditory display settings, invoke
command <b>emacspeak-aumix-edit</b>
by pressing
<b><b>e</b></b> after
invoking command
<b>emacspeak-aumix</b>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b3"><b>5.2. </b>Playing audio CDs</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>Emacspeak built-in command
<b>cd-tool</b>
uses the command-line tools provided by RPM package
cdp.
This is convenient for playing tracks from a CD.
Use cdcd from within an Emacs
shell for more complex tasks such as querying a
CDDB database.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b4"><b>5.3. </b>Playing MP3 using
mpg123</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>mpg123 is a
command-line MP3 player.
Emacs package mpg123.el provides
an Emacs front-end that is speech-enabled by
Emacspeak.
This front-end is most convenient for playing tracks out of
a given directory.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b5"><b>5.4. </b>Playing MP3 files with freeamp</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>MP3 player
freeamp provides a
pluggable look and feel with many popular
front-ends for playing music. There are different front
-ends to freeamp,
including an Emacs front-end provided by Emacspeak
via module
emacspeak-freeamp.el.
The freeamp is more
convenient for setting up music playlists.
The emacspeak interface allows controlling the MP3 player
from anywhere on the audio desktop without the
need to explicitly switch context from the current task.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b6"><b>5.5. </b>Setting up music playlists</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>Application
freeamp can play music
listed
in a playlist file --typically
such files are given the extension
<tt>.m3u</tt>.
A playlist file contains names of MP3 files, one per line.
To create a playlist file for use with
freeamp,
you might execute the following command from
within a shell
buffer:
<blockquote class="blockquote">
<p>
<pre class="programlisting">
cd $HOME/music
find . -name '*.mp3' > playlist.m3u
</pre>
</p>
</blockquote>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b7"><b>5.6. </b>Playing Realaudio Streams</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Install real player
--this is Real Networks' Real Media player.
Next, install command-line interface
trplayer.
Once you have this installed and configured, you can use
Emacspeak's built-in
RealMedia front-end provided by module
emacspeak-realaudio.el
to conveniently play streaming media from anywhere on the
audio desktop --see command
<b>emacspeak-realaudio</b>.
Note that when playing a stream, you can use all the
single-keystroke navigation commands provided by
trplayer
by prefixing them with C-e ;
from anywhere on the audio desktop; alternatively,
you can use C-e ;; to switch to a special
Emacs buffer that contains
trplayer
and then execute trplayer
commands directly.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b4b8"><b>5.7. </b>Streaming media presets</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>Streaming media on the WWW is often
well-hidden behind several mouse clicks.
Emacspeak allows you to configure your favorite
streams as an organized hierarchy. The Emacspeak
distribution comes with such a collection of
streams I listen to on a frequent basis. You can
access these by using standard Emacs completion
when prompted for a <tt>RealAudio
Resource</tt> by command
<b>emacspeak-realaudio</b>.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="c83b1b1b5">6. Authoring Tools</a></h3>
<p>This section contains tips on authoring
structured documents for online and print
publishing. See the relevant section of the online
Emacspeak manual
for further details on
<a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/info/emacspeak.html#SEC31">
document authoring on the Emacspeak desktop.</a>
</p>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="c83b1b1b6">7. Electronic Messaging</a></h3>
<p>
This section contains tips about electronic messaging on
the Emacspeak desktop.
For further details, see the relevant section
of the online Emacspeak manual on
<a href="http://emacspeak.sourceforge.net/info/emacspeak.html#SEC40">
electronic messaging.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="c83b1b1b7">8. System Management And System
Administration</a></h3>
<p>This section contains tips on managing your system.</p>
</div>
<div class="qandadiv">
<h3 class="title"><a name="c83b1b1b8">9. Emacspeak Utilities</a></h3>
<p>This section gives tips on using some of the built-in
productivity tools bundled with Emacspeak.
Most of these are implemented in module
emacspeak-wizards.
</p>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b2"><b>9.1. </b>
Launch a <b>root</b> shell.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
<i>Never</i> run Emacspeak as the
<b>root</b> user.
Instead use Emacspeak command
<b>emacspeak-root</b>
to create a <b>root shell</b> after starting Emacspeak.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b3"><b>9.2. </b>Emacspeak Clipboard</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Emacspeak provides a clipboard facility to enabling cut and
paste across different emacspeak sessions,
see commands
<table class="simplelist" border="0">
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-clipboard-copy</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>emacspeak-clipboard-paste</b></td>
</tr>
</table>
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b4"><b>9.3. </b>Copying current file.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>Emacspeak command
<b>emacspeak-copy-current-file</b>
lets you copy the file being visited to a
different location ---this is a convenient way of
publishing to a WWW server.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b5"><b>9.4. </b>Personal telephone directory.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
Emacspeak command
<b>emacspeak-speak-telephone-directory</b>
lets you maintain a telephone directory as a simple text file.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b6"><b>9.5. </b>Tabbulating shell command output.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>Many UNIX commands produce tabulated output,
e.g., command <b>df</b> for displaying
a disk usage summary.
You can use Emacspeak command
<b>emacspeak-speak-run-shell-command</b>
to run such commands and have the tabular output available
for browsing using Emacspeak's table browsing facilities.
</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="qandaentry">
<div class="question">
<p><a name="c83b1b1b8b7"><b>9.6. </b>Filtering specific columns of all lines.</a></p>
</div>
<div class="answer">
<p><b> </b>
This is most useful when working with log files.
Command <b>
emacspeak-speak-line-set-column-filter</b>
enables you to filter out uninteresting columns
of each line as it is spoken.
Note that columns are filtered out by making
them <i>inaudible</i>
---in order for this to take effect,
<b>voice-lock</b> needs to be active
in the current buffer.
</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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