[Heathkit] Ellipses

[John Bartley]

Dear Duane:

In the Heathkit e-mail list through mailman.qth.net, you noted the use
of ellipses, i.e., dot dot dot, causes a problem for text-to-speech
synthesizers, including those from Freedom Scientific, G.W. Micro and
Digital Equipment Corporation.  You had also offered to forward any
solutions to those firms.

Please do suggest to them that their code be modded to parse text
strings for all commonly used Internet punctuation styles, including
but not limited to the use of ellipses. Since ellipses are a commonly
uses typographical convention used for over a century in the
typesetting world,, it would seem only logical that they improve their
product to meet the conventions of the literary world, instead of
shipping products which needlessly cause their users problems.

Other Internet conventions which should be parsed for include the use
of <angle brackets> to set off URLs and e-mail addresses. I would also
suggest that text between angle brackets, brackets, parentheses and
curley braces be read at a lowered pitch, perhaps a third of an octave
lower, so text within these may be more easily understood.


73s and best regards,
John Bartley K7AAY 
reporter and writer, www.pdaphonehome.com