$Id: es.README,v 1.5 2006/12/28 15:17:32 jerry Exp $

This utility addresses the problem of running emacspeak on a remote
host for which there is no chance of the synth driver connecting back
to local host in the reverse direction using ssh or other means.  It
is useful when firewall and/or IP masquerading hide the local machine
from the outside.  In cases like this, the solution is to make 2
outbound connections.

This notes file plus the essential scripts can be found here;
http://emacspeak.jerrysievers.com/remote/

Prerequisites; Local side

1. A working synth is installed.  

2. The 'es' script is installed and executable.

3. Local side .ssh is configure to connect to remote side without
   password or other interaction using key files etc.

4. (OPtional) A es.profile directory exists with one or more profiles
   setup.

Prerequisites; remote side

1. Emacs is installed.

2. Emacspeak is installed.

3. Emacspeak server stub 'emacspeak_pipe' is installed and executable.

Further details;

Suggest using a personal bin dir under $HOME for placement of the es
and emacspeak_pipe scripts.  It may be simpler to just copy both
scripts to everywhere that you work but at least you must have es on
the local side and emacspeak_pipe on the remote side.

Observe that in the es script as of this writing, there are several
commands with unqualified path names; to wit, eflite, emacspeak etc.
Make sure these can be launched without full path before testing this
or give full path in the es script.

Test and verify that you are able to connect to the remote machine via
ssh without password and suggest having your .ssh/config file setup
with a symbolic hostname that's easy to type and remember.  There is
no need to use a fully qualified name here.

Use the es.profiles directory to store groups of variable settings
which are particular to a specific non-standard host.  The platform
this system was developed on was Linux but the author sometimes
connects to a Solaris machine where several of the settings must be
changed.  It is much easier to use the profiles system here.  A sample
of one such profile is included in this distro for reference.

Study the es file and make changes to the default settings if
necessary before getting started.

Examples;

# Connect to this fully qualified host
es mama.remotedomain.com

# Connect to same host presumeably with hosts or .ssh/config file
# allowing short hostname
es mama

# Connect to mama again but use vt100 terminal
es -t vt100 mama

# Connect to destination using profile named 'jf'
es -p jf

Caveats;

There is no support for doing server restart so this works best with a
very reliable synth that does not die randomly.  Eflite server has
been found very reliable by this author and is used for the R&D.

Note: I have some problem however keeping the eflite alive on a laptop
running Fedora 5 which I have not figured out yet.

There is no way to use auditory icons at present however, same could
be implemented using similar method of connecting outbound to a pipe
if desired.  May come later and would also require the icon files be
installed on the local side.

Author contact info;

Jerry Sievers: js@jerrysievers.com

Good luck!