4.8 Compatibility Speech Servers

Emacsvox retains direct speech servers for existing installations. They are not the recommended first setup and are outside the initial-user platform matrix above:

espeak

The direct GNU/Linux Tcl server. Building it with make espeak requires Tclx at runtime, Tcl 8.6 development headers, eSpeak NG development libraries, and a C++ compiler. It remains useful for compatibility testing, but new users should install Omnivox instead.

swiftmac

The direct Swift macOS server. It requires Swift 5.9 or newer and is built with make swiftmac. It remains a compatibility alternative to Omnivox’s AVSpeechSynthesizer engine; see servers/mac-swiftmac/Readme.org.

mac

The legacy Python/PyObjC macOS server. The unset runtime selector still names it as a compatibility default on Darwin, but it is not the recommended or documented initial-user route. It depends on Foundation, AppKit, and PyObjCTools availability.

outloud

The direct GNU/Linux IBM TTS or Eloquence adapter. It requires a separately licensed compatible runtime, which Emacsvox does not distribute. Voxin availability is documented at https://voxin.oralux.net.

dtk-soft

The direct Software DECtalk adapter. Install its runtime separately and see servers/software-dtk/Readme.org. Emacsvox does not distribute licensed speech runtimes.

The native Windows audio, standalone Eloquence, and standalone DECtalk bridges under servers/ are advanced WSL-specific compatibility paths. Piper is an optional Omnivox engine and model workflow, not a primary Emacsvox server.