BackTalk 1.1 - System Speech for OS/2

Revised and modified BackTalk project by Samuel Audet <guardia@cam.org>  

Original copy, idea and copyrights goes to Jim Little <jiml@teleport.com> 
and his Power User section available at OS/2 E-Zine!.

After installation, you can delete all the *.h, *.c, *.def and makefile if you
desire.  Those are source codes.

I. Speech Queue .CMD file
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The speech queue (SPEECHQ.CMD) is the only program that actually uses SAY.EXE
to generate speech.  The other programs simply place their messages in a queue
for SPEECHQ to handle.  Therefore, SPEECHQ.CMD must be running before any of
the other speech programs will work. 

SPEECHQ.CMD must be located in the same directory as SAY.EXE.  If you
used INSTALL.CMD, the file is already there.  Normally, SPEECHQ will 
say, "Speech Enabled" when it is started.  If you don't hear anything, try 
removing the '-b 16' part of 'synth' variable in this CMD.  Your sound card 
might not be able to process 16 bit sound (it doesn't hurt to try though, 
and it sounds much better). If you hear "Unable to delete blahblah", 
naughty naughty... next time try to end it with "Stop Speech", instead of 
Closing the window.  Now reboot. :)

II. CMU Pronunciation Dictionary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
RSynth sounds much better if you install the optional dictionary.  This
dictionary can be found online on Derek Decker's web site.  The URL is
http://www.cris.com/~djd/products.html.  To install the dictionary, do the
following:
1. Stop the speech queue if it is active.
2. Copy the plain-text dictionary file into the RSynth directory.
3. Make sure you have plenty of hard drive space.  (15MB should be enough.)
3. Type "mkdictdb cmudict.04 adict.db" at a command prompt in the RSynth
   directory.  Use the appropriate filename in place of cmudict.04 if it's
   changed.
4. Ignore errors.
5. Wait.
   ...a long time.
   ...a very, very, very long time.
   (We're talking at least an hour here.  Fortunately, you can multitask!)
6. When it's done, restart the speech queue and marvel at the frog prince's
   transformation.  You can delete the cmudict.04 file.

III. SPKMAIL.CMD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The only truly useful program included with this project is SPKMAIL.CMD.  When
this program is installed with your email program, you will be notified by
voice whenever new mail arrives.  This is particularly useful if you leave
your mailer running but minimized while you are connected to the Internet.
SpkMail reads the author and the subject of any new message, preventing the
need to bring up your mailer every time new mail arrives.

SpkMail requires an email program that supports REXX exits.  I've used it
successfully with PMMail 1.52 (1.50 didn't work) and MR/2 ICE 1.10.

PMMail 1.52:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Open PMMail.
2. Select "Utilities Settings..." from the "Account" menu.
3. Click the "REXX Exits" tab.
4. Check the "Message Receive Exit" checkbox.
5. Enter the full pathname to and including SPKMAIL.CMD, if not located in
   PMMAIL.EXE's directory, in the corresponding entry field.
6. Press OK.

MR/2 ICE:
~~~~~~~~~
1. Copy flip.exe (located in \flip) where MR2I.EXE resides.
2. Edit SPKMAIL.CMD and change 'flip = 1'.
2. Open MR/2 ICE.
3. Select "Filter maintenance..." from the "Utilities" menu.
4. Press the "New" button.
5. Enter a description, such as "New message."
6. Enter a tag (in the lone right text entry), such as "New."
8. Check the "Link to REXX" checkbox.
9. Enter the full pathname to and including SPKMAIL.CMD, if not located in
   MR2I.EXE's directory, in the corresponding entry field.
10. Press OK.
11. Press Done.

IV. Feedback
~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm very interested in any other practical (or not so practical)
applications of speech you can think of.  Send any ideas, REXX programs, or
wacky flights of fancy to me via email at Jim Little <jiml@teleport.com>
and Samuel Audet <guardia@cam.org>

V. Acknowledgements
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thanks for Jim Little for making this up, so I could optimize it. :)

Many thanks go to Nick Ing-Simmons (nik@tiuk.ti.com) for writing RSynth and
to Derek J. Decker (djd@cris.com) for porting it to OS/2 (version 2.2 rules).

Thanks also to Cheng-Yang Tan (cytan@tristan.tn.cornell.edu) for writing
UPTIME.EXE.

Thanks to the unknown artistic genious that created the icons I stole.  If
you recognize any of these icons as your own, let me know so I can give you
credit.
