In this rather short development cycle the main focus was on improving the settings interface in order to make it easier accessible. In this case most of the credits goes to @Aminah!
Following a user request we have implemented a small pause between suttas in multiple sutta playlists. For those who wish playlists with longer pauses, @Robbie has developed a way to create them using python commands. Try it out, become a snake charmer!
And it should be easier now for those with slow internet to download a sutta (but still, donāt try DN 33!).
Amongst the English language narrators, Russel has left and made way for Brian who turned out to be the most popular in our little poll on reading voices. He is pretty energetic, so probably keeps you awake while listening to the suttas. This seems to be what most people like. But for those who prefer it a bit softer thereās still good old Amy to help you out.
And when talking about leaving, we would like to use this occasion to officially say good bye to @Aminah who has now retired from the Voice team and became the first VOICE EMERITA. Next to all her contributions that are mentioned in the Acknowledgements there are of course still all those things you canāt easily find words for, but that are no less important. Aminah, you have left traces in our hearts that even a thousand DELETE buttons would not be able to erase! And at this point words fail meā¦
Oh no, there seems to be another disease that is contagious! I am so deeply touched by the words that made it on screen and the words that didnāt, and Iām going to trust youāll be able to decipher all the unwritten words of my message here!!!!
Thank you, Anagarika @Sabbamitta. Your enthusiasm, organization and vigilance have made ongoing Voice work possible and painless.
Aminah, your new Settings UI is indeed very much easier to use and also elegantly compact. Thank you for this feature and also for your own passion and skill in design, leadership and insight since the very beginning of Voice.
To all the translators, thank you for your time and efforts in making the Dhamma accessible to the world.
It is currently not possible simply because it hadnāt occurred to us. I listen to Voice rather than look at it so the problem simply doesnāt arise for the visually impaired. However, such a feature would double the rate at which the sighted can listen to the bilingual suttas, since one can read the English/Pali while hearing the Pali. We can certainly add in this feature for a future release with an estimate of about a week of work (i.e., 13) since it involves both UI and backend work.
A more economical solution would be to ALWAYS show the translation language and have the preference apply only to the spoken language. This would require no UI change and would take half as much time. But it might (?) surprise some (?) people who expect to only read Pali.
Perhaps this would also be possible - there are times when I want to read in pali and english, but listen to english only. (Itās a social kindness; other listeners are not interested in the pali (usually); earphones are uncomfortable and reduce sharing Dhamma. )
The setting I mean is not under ānarratorā but under ātranslationā. Are you sure you have only ticked the box for Pali and have unchecked the box for translation language? See my screen shot above. If this setting is right it doesnāt matter which English narrator is selected, you should hear only Pali.
If you have done all that, and you still hear Pali and English, please let us know what exact device you are using, which operating system and browser (version number).
If this happens when you actually want to hear an English voice, then please explain exactly what you are trying to do.
Have you seen what the issue says? It doesnāt say ālistening to Pali together with bilingual readingā, it says āmonolingual listening together with bilingual readingā. āMonolingualā can be any language.
(And ābilingualā, by extension, can be any two languagesāwhich may become relevant in connection with a later release we have scheduled which is supposed to enable bilingual listening to any two languages. And maybe this new issue can just go into the same release, so the other item isnāt so lonelyā¦ )
And at this point words fail meā¦
Perhaps this would also be possible - there are times when I want to read in pali and english, but listen to english only. (Itās a social kindness; other listeners are not interested in the pali (usually); earphones are uncomfortable and reduce sharing Dhamma. )
)