Found this speaking time vbs batch script today & figured I'd ask for advice on how it works and how Windows gadgets work

On Fri, 12 Jun 2020 13:14:51 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:
On Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:19:04 +0700, JJ wrote:

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 16:50:36 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:
First off, I've _never_ run a VBS script before (as I didn't even know they
would work on Windows 10 without installing "something else"... nor have I
(knowingly) installed what is referred to in that thread as a "Windows
gadget"...

Is Windows 10 your first Windows OS?

Hi JJ,

My post was initiated with "purposefully helpful" intentions.
o Consider my intent - and then think - think hard please - about yours.

If that is your first Windows OS, then I would have to explain some basics
of Windows. Otherwise I won't. Frankly, I don't know why you thought
negatively first toward others.

"R.Wieser" wrote

|
| :-) Your email addy is, just as mine, invalid. How do we do this ?
|

Sorry. I thought you knew my website. I would
have just posted it there, but it was made by a private
company, so I don't feel like I have permission to
do public distribution.

But Paul's link from yesterday is the same thing:

http://www.zero2000.com/free-text-to...al-voices.html

The Mike and Mary package is the same that I have.
According to the MSI info it was made by the people
at Zero2000.

The Michael and Michelle package is a 3rd-party thing
that it might be possible to adapt but I unpacked the
installer/settings and it's very different.

On Sat, 13 Jun 2020 17:31:13 +0700, JJ wrote:

My post was initiated with "purposefully helpful" intentions.
o Consider my intent - and then think - think hard please - about yours.

If that is your first Windows OS, then I would have to explain some basics
of Windows. Otherwise I won't. Frankly, I don't know why you thought
negatively first toward others.

Hi JJ,

Usenet is best when each person strives to add value when they post.
o Value that is archived in the permanent record for reuse by many.

I hope you understand that I feel you are capable of adding value.
o All I ask of you is that the next time you post, keep that in mind.

You'll note that _multiple_ people in this thread added value.
o Just not you.

For example, multiple VBS scripts were posted (each improving upon the
prior); new voices were unearthed; existing voices were unlocked
(particularly from Cortana); and definitions were clarified.

People like you, who clearly posted with zero purposeful intentions, _can_
redeem yourselves simply by posting with purposefully helpful intent.

It's not hard to post with purposeful intent, JJ...
o People like Rudy can't seem to rise to that level - but you can, JJ.

I'm sure you can.

Let's move forward given this is Usenet, JJ, where bygones are bygones.
o I don't expect people like Rudy to ever post with helpful intent.

*But I do expect you, JJ, to be able to post with helpful intent*.
o Where I expect your next post, JJ, to purposefully add on-topic value.

For example, like I did over he
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/Nv8cJ229qeI/NxjGgcceAwAJ
o Where I added this section so that the script speaks the minutes better:
min_now=minute(time)

if min_now = 0 Then
ohno = " "
min_now = " "
Elseif min_now 0 and min_now 10 Then
ohno = " oh "
Else min_now=minute(time)
End If

speaks = "It is " & hourfinal & ohno & min_now & ampm
Set speech=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks
--
That one snippet is more value than you added in this entire thread, JJ;
but I'm confident, JJ, that your next post _can_ add helpful value.

Mayayana,

But Paul's link from yesterday is the same thing:

http://www.zero2000.com/free-text-to...al-voices.html

Alas, that is one of the sources I downloaded from all that time ago. I
tested a bunch of them (on a seperate machine), including installing that
"SAPI 5.1 TTS Engine". The improvement in quality was negligible to my
ears (still had to regulary guess to what was being said), so I never
installed any of it on my working machine.

Damn. I was really hoping that there would be a few legible voices out
there. :-\

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

UPDATE:
(a) Comments added
(b) Minutes redundancy fixed
(c) Reference URLs added

The main enhancements left are to add "noon" & "midnight" indicators.
o As always, please improve so that all benefit from your every action.

===== Begin cut for "saytime.vbs" =====
' Date: 20200613
' Name: c:\app\os\bin\vbs\saytime.vbs (8+3 conventions)
' Source (1) https://www.nextofwindows.com/windows-trick-how-to-make-your-computer-to-speak-out-time-at-every-hour
' Source (2): https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/windows-speak-time-every-hour/
' Source (3): https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/Nv8cJ229qeI/NxjGgcceAwAJ
' Thread: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.comp.freeware/Nv8cJ229qeI
' Enhancement (1) 'Oh clock' indication (i.e., at zero minutes)
' Enhancement (2) 'Oh' indication (i.e., from one to nine minutes)
' Enhancement (3) 'Oh No' indication (i.e., from ten to fifty-nine minutes)
' Bugfix (1) Removed extraneous "min_now=minute(time)" call in the "Minutes" section
' WIP: Add "noon" & "midnight" as per https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/Nv8cJ229qeI/yeWvlpQfAwAJ
' Free Voices: http://www.zero2000.com/free-text-to-speech-natural-voices.html
' Unlock System Voices: https://winaero.com/blog/unlock-extra-voices-windows-10/
' Unlock Cortana Voices: https://www.ghacks.net/2018/08/11/unlock-all-windows-10-tts-voices-system-wide-to-get-more-of-them/
Dim speaks, speech
hour_now=hour(time)
' Determine Meridiem https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.usage.english/eKeHcjtKuiI
if hour_now 12 or hour_now = 12 Then
hour12 = hour_now - 12
ampm = "PM"
Else
hour12 = hour_now
hourfinal = hour_now
ampm = "AM"
End If
' Determine Evening/Morning
If hour12 = 10 Then
hourfinal = "Ten"
Elseif hour12 = 11 Then
hourfinal = "Eleven"
Elseif hour12 = 12 Then
hourfinal = "Twelve"
Elseif hour12 = 0 Then
hourfinal = "Twelve"
Elseif hour12 0 and hour12 10 Then
hourfinal = hour12
End If
' Determine minutes
min_now=minute(time)
'
if min_now = 0 Then
ohno = " "
min_now = " "
Elseif min_now 0 and min_now 10 Then
ohno = " oh "
End If
' Saytime:
' Tested (1) 11:59PM = "It is eleven fifty nine pm"
' Tested (2) 12:00AM = "It is 12 am"
' Tested (3) 12:01AM = "It is 12 oh one am"
speaks = "It is " & hourfinal & ohno & min_now & ampm
Set speech=CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks
' EOF
===== End cut for "saytime.vbs" =====
--
Those who post purposefully helpfully are who make Usenet useful.

Paul,

https://send.firefox.com/

Thanks for the suggestion, but JS is an absolute no-no on my own machine.

Should I now continue with a rant about how JS is destroying a perfectly
good idea that could easily be implemented without JS ?

Nah. Just imagine I did. :-)

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

On Sat, 13 Jun 2020 14:26:21 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

o Where I added this section so that the script speaks the minutes better:

Correction!

Responding to JJ made me _look_ at that "minutes" section, where I
instantly realized there was a bug of redundancy in the code posted prior:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/Mpke6vAc48Y/OZPfr3S-AAAJ

DO NOT USE THAT CODE!

After responding to JJ, I _corrected_ that bug, where I thank JJ for
allowing me the chance to take a second (fresh) look at the code I had
posted last night.

I instantly saw that I had made two calls, one of them extraneous, to:
o min_now=minute(time)

Since Usenet serves as a wonderfully permanent web-searchable archive of
purposefully helpful general purpose solutions which everyone can instantly
make use of, here's that update kindly inspired by responding to JJ's post:
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.msdos.batch/Mpke6vAc48Y/ZeJwEqHfAAAJ

As always, please improve so that everyone benefits from your every post.
--
Usenet works best when helpful adults share ideas politely with each other.

"Arlen Holder" wrote in message
...
UPDATE:
(a) Comments added
(b) Minutes redundancy fixed

I'm quite sure you can do /way/ better.

You're using way more variables than needed. At some point you've got
/three/ variables all holding the exact same value - with only one actually
used.

There are two more redundancies in there.

But, you're smart enough, you can figure it out for yourself.

And funny: an "Determine Evening/Morning" comment, with code that doesn't
anything of the kind, nor is most, if not all of it needed. Thats the the
fourth redundancy.

You should really put some more work in testing your stuff you know. For
this code its not /that/ hard.

Those who post purposefully helpfully are who make Usenet useful.

Well, you got it. A clear warning that "your" code sucks, with a few solid
hints to where to look. Go git!

Regards
Rudy Wieser

"R.Wieser" wrote

| Damn. I was really hoping that there would be a few legible voices out
| there. :-\
|

I find them all very clear. I wonder if it could be
your audio driver or speakers. Or maybe the language?
They might not have put so much effort into non-
English speech.

Mayayana wrote:
"R.Wieser" wrote

| Damn. I was really hoping that there would be a few legible voices out
| there. :-\
|

I find them all very clear. I wonder if it could be
your audio driver or speakers. Or maybe the language?
They might not have put so much effort into non-
English speech.

Some of the phrases have no time-separation between
them, which reduces the legibility. It's especially
annoying on some "number readouts". It's almost like
the speech model is defective, rather than the voice
being the only cause.

It's possible if you were using a separate screen reader
with its own engine, the result could be different. Rather
than if it used SAPI from the system as the engine.

Paul

Mayayana,

I find them all very clear. I wonder if it could be
your audio driver or speakers. Or maybe the language?

Most likely a combination of my wetware DSP (I've got a bad noise
suppressor), combined with English not being my first langage, combined with
needing to switch attention when sentences are suddenly spoken.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

On Sat, 13 Jun 2020 14:32:47 -0400, Paul wrote:

Some of the phrases have no time-separation between them

I solved that problem the same way I saw that others did, which was to
insert pauses (i.e., "spacespace") in the speech output as shown he
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/Nv8cJ229qeI/chzO8fM_AwAJ
--
Usenet is best when adults post purposefully helpful suggestions.