Setting the DefaultVoice for a voice without a conf file

[Didier Spaier]

Hello Storm,

On 28/11/2018 20:36, Storm Dragon wrote:
> Now when RHVoice speaks, it uses the alan voice. I would rather it use
> bdl instead. Is thee a way I can specify this either in the main
> speechd.conf file or in the placeholder module file?

AFAIK, not yet.

Currently there is no way to set a default voice in speech-dispatcher:
This can only be done by and for a client like Orca or Chromevox.

Two entries in the TODO could be related:
* Allow setting a synthesis voice in the user config using spd-conf.
(0.10) Synthesizer specific settings API.

It seems me that it is hazardous to manually write such a setting in a
config file (be it at the synthesizer or global level), because there is
no guarantee that the voice be available (because of a typo, or because
it is not installed or it has been removed).

The safe way to specify it would be:
1) Get the synthesis voice list for this synthesizer. With the recent
changes only the currently available ones should be listed.
2) Pick one and write its name somewhere in the system or user config.

Of course even that is not 100% safe, as the voice could still have been
removed after having written the setting. But hey, we can't prevent the
user to shoot oneself in the foot.

Best,

Didier