Short: New replacement for the C= speak-handler Author: selco at t-online dot de (Alexander Fritsch) Uploader: selco t-online de (Alexander Fritsch) Type: util/sys Version: 39.1 Requires: translator.library, narrator.device and OS2.0 Architecture: m68k-amigaos Distribution: Aminet Kurz: Neuer Ersatz fuer den C= speak-handler ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This is a replacement for the Commodore speak-handler that was dropped when OS 2.1 was released. It has been created from scratch, i.e. it is not just a patch but a completely new program. All features of the original speak-handler are supported. International characters are supported. For a working speech synthesizer you need additionally any version of narrator.device and translator.library. A free translator.library can be found on Aminet, narrator.device must be obtained from old Workbench disks or Cloantos Amiga Forever CD. As a bonus this new speak-handler can be used in combination with different translator.libraries and narrator.devices. You can have a SPEAK: device that uses the latest narrator.device and translator.library and -at the same time- a SPEAK_WB134: that uses the ("more retro-sounding") narrator from Workbench 1.3 disk. Installation ------------ Copy speak-handler to L: Copy the desired mount files (e.g. SPEAK, SPEAK_WB10, SPEAK_WB134, SPEAK_Trans424) to DEVS:Dosdrivers/ or create a new file using these as templates. Copy needed narrator.device to Devs: and translator.library to Libs: If you plan to use different versions simultanously then the devices/libraries must be renamed and slightly patched. For this purpose a special patch tool "speak_libdevpatcher" is provided. The length of the new names must not be longer than the original names! For instance narator.device from Workbench 1.3 has version 33.2, so a possible new name is narra332.device or narrwb13.device. To patch your narrator.device version 33.2 from Workebench 1.3.4 disk in DF0: you could call speak_libdevpatcher FROM df0:devs/narrator.device TO sys:devs/narra332.device And to patch translator.library version 34.3 from the same disk speak_libdevpatcher FROM df0:libs/translator.library TO sys:libs/transla343.library For translator.library 42.4 from aminet you could call for instance speak_libdevpatcher FROM ram:Translator/Libs/020_translator.library TO Libs:transla424.library The mountfiles (SPEAK, SPEAK_WB10, SPEAK_WB134, SPEAK_Trans424) contain a new line "Startup=" where the new library and device names have to be entered. If this line is commented or library or device is not specified, speak-handler uses the default names narrator.device and translator.library. SPEAK: Options -------------- m (male) f (female) r (robot) n (natural) s speed The speaking rate in words/minute. Range is from 40 to 400 wpm. p pitch The baseline pitch of the speaking voice. Range is 65 to 320 Hertz. The SPEAK: handler provides speech output for the Amiga. With SPEAK: you can have the Amiga literally read the contents of a file out load. For instance, COPY DEVS:mountlist SPEAK:OPT/f/s160 will say the contents of the mountlist in a female voice at a moderate speed. SPEAK: accepts all the options of the SAY command and also o0 and o1 (enables or disables processing of options in the input stream), a0 and a1 (toggled direct phoneme mode), and d0 and d1 (enables sentence pause on LF or CR). ; say the contents of the startup-sequence in a female voice at a moderate speed. copy s:startup-sequence SPEAK:OPT/f/s160 ; speak with default settings echo "This is Amiga speaking." >speak: ; use options r (robotic) and p65 (lowest pitch) echo "This is Amiga speaking like a robot." >speak:opt/r/p65 ; enable in-text options via opt/o1 ; Remind that option parsing happens ONLY at the very beginning of a text line. ; (With the echo command we use *N to insert a NEWLINE, i.e. starting a new textline) echo "This is Amiga speaking*Nopt/r/p65*NAnd this is Amiga speaking like a robot." >speak:opt/o1 ; use German umlauts with translator42 library from Aminet echo "Es grünt so grün, wenn Spaniens Blüten blühen" >SPEAK_Trans424: Acknowledgements ---------------- Speacial thanks go to Thor for patiently discussing implementation problems and potential Amiga-OS compatibility issues with me. Alexander Fritsch selco@t-online.de