> From: Alexander Savenkov [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Saturday, April 03, 2004 3:23 AM
> >> That is arguable. An aural user agent could pronounce "1,
> 2, 3" a bit
> >> different from "1, 2, 3" if there is a (say) thin space between the
> >> digits in the latter case. It could pronounce it quicker,
> for example.
>
> > It *could* do that, but, frankly, that would be a bad
> > idea. Speech synthesis devices have enough trouble with plain text
> > as it is - adding special interpretation for neo-markup characters
> > would just make things worse. This belongs in the realm of
> > (surprise!) markup.
>
> I wonder why you call them neo-markup characters while they have been
> used for years, not on the Web of course. Speech synthesizers have to
> learn how to read (or at least skip) those characters in order to
> facilitate listening comprehension just like a proof-read book
> facilitates visual comprehension.
Clarification, please. Are you saying that there already exist characters that are placed inline to control the behavior of speech synthesis? If so, details, please. If not, could you please elaborate?
Thanks,
/|/|ike
