Hi, I'm Yuval Langer.
Some may know me as cow_2001 on IRC.
I'd like to tell you about greader mode,
a versatile text-to-speech package
written by Michelangelo Rodriguez.
Sometimes you want to read a bunch
and cannot be bothered, right?
You'd rather plop on your chair
and let the words come to you.
You can do it using greader Mode.
What is greader mode?
Greader mode is a text-to-speech minor mode
with which you can read any buffer using the point.
You move your point
right before the text you want to read
and run greader-read command.
You can then use the left and right arrow keys
to jump to the previous sentence or the next sentence.
Installing GReader:
Greader is available on the GNU Emacs app store
and its copyright assigned to
the Free Software Foundation.
To install Greader,
you can run M-x list-packages RET.
look it up with C-s greader,
press i to mark it for installation,
and then press x to execute the installation.
Basic usage:
We can now open a text file and start reading.
Let's open The Willows by Algernon Blackwood.
I've never read the story,
but HP Lovecraft said it was the best horror story
he had ever read, so it is in my reading list.
Now load greader using M-x greader-mode.
To start reading, press C-r SPC.
The Project Gutenberg ebook of The willows.
This will run the greader-read command.
To stop, press the SPC key.
This will run the greader-stop command.
Navigation:
You can navigate like you normally do,
but using the left or right arrow keys
will move the point between sentences
instead of characters.
So... This ebook is...
You may copy it, give it away,
or reuse it if you are not.
Let's move to the start of the story.
"After leaving Vienna,
and long before you come to Budapest,
the Danube enters a region
of singular loneliness and desolation,
where its waters spread away on all sides,
regardless of a main channel,
and the country becomes a swamp for miles upon miles,
covered by a vast sea of low willow bushes."
Reading rate: this reading rate is rather slow.
Let's pick up the pace using the plus key.
This will run the greader-inc-rate command.
You must do that while greader is reading.
Now it is too fast.
We can slow down using the - key.
This will run the greader-dec-rate command.
"In high flood this great acreage
of sand, shingle-beds, and willow-grown islands
is almost topped by the water,
but in normal seasons the bushes
bend and rustle in the free winds,
showing their silver leaves to the sunshine
in an ever-moving plain of bewildering beauty."