Re: Re: flexfax: Voice modems? Answering machine software?

[Camden Clarke <cclarke@inconceivable.com>]

>From: David Woolley <david@djwhome.demon.co.uk>
>Subject: Re: flexfax: Voice modems? Answering machine software?
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Message-ID: <872335597--1493953562@astatos.uucp>
>Date: Sat, 23 Aug 1997 12:26:37 GMT
>
>
[...]
>
>> archives have nothing other than complaints about voice calls messing
>> up fax reception.
>
>My impression is that vgetty support is a hook which was not used by
>the developers.

Well, sort of.  I asked Sam to add the voice hooks to HylaFax because I
have a ZyXEL modem that I wanted to use primarily as an answering machine
and to send/receive FAXes as a second priority.  He was kind enough to
fold the changes into the source tree.

I've been using a ZyXEL 1496 E+ modem with 6.13 firmware as my home
answering machine for a year or more now, letting HylaFAX drive the
modem and invoke my application as "egetty" when the phone rings.

Unfortunately, I never quite got around to doing a few things
that would make it more generally useful (and so suitable for a wider release):
	* Finishing support for USR modems
	* Utilities for convering wave files into modem voice files
	* Better answering machine scripting
	* Trying it on any platform other than SunOS

However, if there are some hardy souls out there who are willing to spend
some time getting it to work, my source code and somewhat out-of-date
documentation can be found in:
	ftp://ftp.inconceivable.com/pub/vgetty/voicegetty.tar.gz

The code shouldn't be too hard to compile, but creating your own
voice-prompts and writing an answering machine script can be pretty
time-consuming--not to mention the various modem issues one is likely to
run into.

I will attempt to answer any questions received by direct e-mail, but I only
read this list mailing occasionally.
					-Cam Clarke
					cclarke@inconceivable.com