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

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"...

Hence my related question, in terms of scripts & gadgets for talking time.
o *Can you kindly expand on how this stuff works & what to look out for?*

As I am wont to do, I was helping out in this talkingiclock thread today:
o White-Tiger T-Clock Redux: Updated version of T-Clock
https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt.comp.freeware/MUxmAVcShTo/DwIvCYCmAgAJ

In that endeavor to find a freeware talking clock, it turned out there may
be two existing freeware solutions, one of which is a vbs script (which
worked the first time in my tests) and the other of which is a "Windows
gadget", which I'm a bit afraid to install pending more information from
folks I trust.

The good news is, apparently, that the VBS script worked as tested:

(1) Visit this web site for the details, which I tested successfully:
o Windows Trick: How To Make Your Computer To Speak Out Time At Every Hour
https://www.nextofwindows.com/windows-trick-how-to-make-your-computer-to-speak-out-time-at-every-hour

(2) Download "time.vbs" https://www.nextofwindows.com/download/Time.vbs
Dim speaks, speech
speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " O'clock"
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

(3) Doubleclick on that "time.vbs" file, which should speak the time
(mine spoke it only within the hour, e.g., 8:15 was spoken as 8:00)

(4) Add that vbs script to the task scheduler to speak the time hourly:
Win+R taskschd.msc
Task Scheduler: Task Scheduler (Local) Actions Create Task
Create Task: General Name=SpeakTime Triggers
New Trigger: Begin the task=On a schedule
Advanced settings: [x]Repeate task every=1hour
for a duration of=Indefinitely OK Actions New
New Action: Action=Start a program
Program/script=C:\app\os\bin\vbs\sayhourlytime.vbs OK OK
Task Scheduler: File Exit

I only added it an hour ago, but it appears to be working, even as I don't
recall ever adding Microsoft Visual Basic interpreters on purposes, but
almost certainly some freeware somewhere required it, so that's likely why
it worked without downloading Microsoft Visual Basic:
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/visual-basic/
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-other_settings-winpc/how-to-know-what-installed-andor-depends-on-each/796b997b-2389-442a-9155-d6021619cc4d
https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/f45a1be4-a613-4b15-bda5-f57e3aa13037/what-versions-of-quotvisual-cquot-do-i-have
etc.

If you need finer time-talking intervals than hourly, I found this:
o Talking Clock overview
https://windows10gadgets.pro/clocks/talkingclock/talkingclock.html
https://windows10gadgets.pro/001/TalkingClock.zip
Name: TalkingClock.zip
Size: 186489 bytes (182 KiB)
SHA256: 57AE1928D2713648C7216DC9F3E3FD098F517CD939D5C53CC5 FA411CC3FF6657

Which is some kind of "Windows gadget" which I'm unfamiliar with.
Name: TalkingClock.gadget
Size: 189768 bytes (185 KiB)
SHA256: 005348106BE954D862A55278F10340E836C857C0BEDB4E2550 EF67641260D525

Do you ever install Windows "gadgets" and what should I look out for?
o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Desktop_Gadgets
"Windows Desktop Gadgets (called Windows Sidebar in Windows Vista)
is a discontinued widget engine for Microsoft Gadgets. "
o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Gadgets
"Microsoft Gadgets are lightweight single-purpose applications,
or software widgets, that can sit on a Microsoft Windows user's
computer desktop"

It's confusing whether I should trust these "gadgets" or not:
"According to Microsoft, Gadgets were discontinued because they have
"serious vulnerabilities", "could be exploited to harm your computer,
access your computer's files, show you objectionable content,
or change their behavior at any time"; and "an attacker could even
use a gadget to take complete control of your PC".[1]"

In summary, what can you expound upon in terms of the visual basic script
and the Windows Gadget for adding a freeware talking time to Windows?
(so that all benefit from every action given your knowledge in this area)
--
The high cost of freeware is simply in finding & installing only the best.

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 16:50:36 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

Dim speaks, speech
speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " O'clock"
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

UPDATE:

As described prior, the visual basic spoken hourly clock sucks.
https://www.nextofwindows.com/windows-trick-how-to-make-your-computer-to-speak-out-time-at-every-hour

That hourly time clock has some gotchas, so far in my quick test today:
1. It speaks out "14 o'clock", instead of "two o'clock", and,
2. It runs on the hour but from when you _started_ the schedule
(i.e., if you started at 10:15, it runs at 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, etc.,
speaking "11 o'clock", "12 o'clock" & "13 o'clock respectively).

In short, it sucks, so if it's going to be used, it needs improvement.
--
On Usenet, helpful adults pitch in to benefit everyone who participates.

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smartphone.
:


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On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 21:31:46 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

1. It speaks out "14 o'clock", instead of "two o'clock", and,
2. It runs on the hour but from when you _started_ the schedule
(i.e., if you started at 10:15, it runs at 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, etc.,
speaking "11 o'clock", "12 o'clock" & "13 o'clock respectively).

Duh.
o Mea culpa.

I'm clearly not used to using the task scheduler.
o To get it to start on the hour, all you do is change the start time.
--
It still speaks out 2pm as "fourteen o'clock" though...

On Fri, 12 Jun 2020 02:31:00 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder
wrote:

On Thu, 11 Jun 2020 21:31:46 -0000 (UTC), Arlen Holder wrote:

1. It speaks out "14 o'clock", instead of "two o'clock", and,
2. It runs on the hour but from when you _started_ the schedule
(i.e., if you started at 10:15, it runs at 11:15, 12:15, 1:15, etc.,
speaking "11 o'clock", "12 o'clock" & "13 o'clock respectively).

Duh.
o Mea culpa.

I'm clearly not used to using the task scheduler.
o To get it to start on the hour, all you do is change the start time.
--
It still speaks out 2pm as "fourteen o'clock" though...

I spent 20 seconds and made the following tweak to make it use a 12-hour
clock rather than the default 24-hour clock.

Dim speaks, d, speech
d = hour(time)
if d 12 then d = d - 12
speaks = "The time is " & d & " O'clock."
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks


I also used the following line in place of the one above:
speaks = "Hi there, it's " & d & " O'clock. I thought you'd wanna know."

Arlen,

(2) Download "time.vbs" https://www.nextofwindows.com/download/Time.vbs
Dim speaks, speech
speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " O'clock"
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

I don't think that you are ware that that is an *EXAMPLE*, giving you
something to start with. Its is NOT MENT as an install-and-just-use
script.

(mine spoke it only within the hour, e.g., 8:15 was spoken as 8:00)

Yes, that is what "hour(time)" returns. Just the hour. If you want
minutes too you have to add that part yourself. Hint: Its strikingly
similar to how to get the hours. Hint(clue)-by-four: google for "vbscript
minutes".

If you need finer time-talking intervals than hourly, I found this:

You already have the script. Why don't you try to change it yourself ?

In summary, what can you expound upon in terms of the
visual basic script and the Windows Gadget for adding a
freeware talking time to Windows?

Neither does.

Being able to speak has been part of Windows as far back as XP. Both are
just ways to gather what you want to have spoken, and than deliver it to the
speech engine. And as you have been able to see, in VBScript having the
'puter speak is done with just two lines of code (of the four lines of
script the first is not actually needed and the second is the gathering and
creation of /what/ to say).

UPDATE:

As described prior, the visual basic spoken hourly clock sucks.

VBScript is NOT equal to Visual Basic. Although they share quite a bit,
they are quite different. (for fun, there is also VBA - Visual Basic for
Applications)

As for "it sucks" ? It does exactly what its designed for. Maybe your
expectations where set a bit to high for this four-line example script ?

In short, it sucks, so if it's going to be used, it needs
improvement.
....
Duh.
o Mea culpa.
I'm clearly not used to using the task scheduler.

Understanding the tools that you use is a prerequisite. :-)

It still speaks out 2pm as "fourteen o'clock" though...

Which is exacty what it was written to do. And as long as you do not change
the script it will keep doing that.

IOW: Welcome in the wonderous world of VBScripting.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

P.s.

Why did you xpost this to "alt.msdos.batch" ? Nothing in your post is
related to either DOS, or Batch.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

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?

"R.Wieser" wrote

| Why did you xpost this to "alt.msdos.batch" ? Nothing in your post is
| related to either DOS, or Batch.
|

I think that demonstrates 2 common misunderstandings.
One is that VBS is VB. The other is that anything interpreted
is a "batch" file. Maybe that gets mixed up because there
was never really a name for it. In the beginning it was all
just DOS and sometimes people would automate that with
BAT files.
People write "batch" files these days and get very angry if
you call it DOS, even if it is. But even the word "batch" really
just indicates an automated operation to do something
repeatedly, which is not necessarily what script is doing.

To make matters more confusing, on Linux they call their
interpreters shells and refer to commandline as shell scripting,
while in Windows the shell (Explorer GUI) is everything except
commandline. Meanwhile, Microsoft named their DOS-esque,
Linux-wannabe, one-executable-for-every-command monstrosity
"PowerShell", adopting the Linux nomenclature.

A third common misconception is that
interpreted code and commandline are "bare metal"
computer use, which is like thinking that a fireplace
is the most efficient way to heat a house, simply because
it requires the most work.

My XP computer has a clock in the lower right that tells
me hours and minutes at a glance. I also have a clock on
the shelf over my computer. And Scheduled Tasks is
completely disabled. So I don't have to write any code to
find out the time. Ah, the good old days.

On 12.06.20 11:16, R.Wieser wrote:
Arlen,

(2) Download "time.vbs" https://www.nextofwindows.com/download/Time.vbs
Dim speaks, speech
speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " O'clock"
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

I don't think that you are ware that that is an *EXAMPLE*, giving you
something to start with. Its is NOT MENT as an install-and-just-use
script.

(mine spoke it only within the hour, e.g., 8:15 was spoken as 8:00)

Yes, that is what "hour(time)" returns. Just the hour. If you want
minutes too you have to add that part yourself. Hint: Its strikingly
similar to how to get the hours. Hint(clue)-by-four: google for "vbscript
minutes".

If you need finer time-talking intervals than hourly, I found this:

You already have the script. Why don't you try to change it yourself ?

In summary, what can you expound upon in terms of the
visual basic script and the Windows Gadget for adding a
freeware talking time to Windows?

Neither does.

Being able to speak has been part of Windows as far back as XP. Both are
just ways to gather what you want to have spoken, and than deliver it to the
speech engine. And as you have been able to see, in VBScript having the
'puter speak is done with just two lines of code (of the four lines of
script the first is not actually needed and the second is the gathering and
creation of /what/ to say).

UPDATE:

As described prior, the visual basic spoken hourly clock sucks.

VBScript is NOT equal to Visual Basic. Although they share quite a bit,
they are quite different. (for fun, there is also VBA - Visual Basic for
Applications)

As for "it sucks" ? It does exactly what its designed for. Maybe your
expectations where set a bit to high for this four-line example script ?

In short, it sucks, so if it's going to be used, it needs
improvement.
...
Duh.
o Mea culpa.
I'm clearly not used to using the task scheduler.

Understanding the tools that you use is a prerequisite. :-)

It still speaks out 2pm as "fourteen o'clock" though...

Which is exacty what it was written to do. And as long as you do not change
the script it will keep doing that.

IOW: Welcome in the wonderous world of VBScripting.

Regards,
Rudy Wieser


Wow,yes, that worked in XP PRO. Sounded horrible though.

"Sjouke Burry" wrote

| Wow,yes, that worked in XP PRO. Sounded horrible though.


If you care, the Michael and Mary voices were made
available by someone as an XP installable. There are
also other voices. Probably all of them could be put
on XP but it requires putting the file into...

C:\Program Files\Common Files\SpeechEngines\Microsoft\TTS\[language ID]\

....and then adding a few Registry settings.

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.
--
I said from the start I never used nor cared for vbs nor for widgets, nor
did I claim to desire the results for myself (as my system clock is random
anyway); what I said, very clearly, was that I was helping others, and
hence, I simply asked for helpful advice in expounding on the experience.

Mayayana,

If you care, the Michael and Mary voices were
made available by someone as an XP installable.

Do you perhaps have some more info ?

A number of years ago I tried to add a more understandable voice to my
XPsp3, but hit a brick wall when the voice-files I downloaded never wanted
to work - and often didn't even contain files ending in either .sdf or .spd
(as the "sam" voice-files do).

Most of the time I can't understand what the "sam" voice says, even though
I've entered the text myself. Heck, just emitting a few beeps is currently
often more helpfull. :-(

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

"Arlen Holder" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:19:04 +0700, JJ wrote:

Well f*ck ....

My post was initiated with "purposefully helpful" intentions.
.....
I said from the start I never used nor cared for vbs nor for widgets,

Translation: "I only accept answers I do not need to do anything for, and
can just copy-paste into my next tutorial."

I hoped something different (the needed changes where simple enough, some
googeling would have provided the answers), but I should have known. :-(

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

R.Wieser wrote:
"Arlen Holder" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Jun 2020 18:19:04 +0700, JJ wrote:

Well f*ck ....

My post was initiated with "purposefully helpful" intentions.
....
I said from the start I never used nor cared for vbs nor for widgets,

Translation: "I only accept answers I do not need to do anything for, and
can just copy-paste into my next tutorial."

I hoped something different (the needed changes where simple enough, some
googeling would have provided the answers), but I should have known. :-(

Regards,
Rudy Wieser

timing.vbs (don't use reserved words for command names...)

Dim speaks, speech
speaks = "It is " & hour(time) & " hours and " & minute(time) & " minutes"
Set speech = CreateObject("sapi.spvoice")
speech.Speak speaks

Back when I took my first Fortran class (for credit, not because
I needed it), one of the other students was blabbering on about
"bimodal distribution of marks". I was rather amused by this notion
at the time, that this could actually happen in a topic.

% |
| ^ ^
| / \ / \
| ---/ \-------/ \------
+-------------+---------------
FAIL PASS

But the message there, is students either "get" programming
or they "don't get it". There did not seem to be any in-between.

I managed to squeak by on the PASS side. Great.

However, different subjects in programming lead to
different outcomes. When I tried my hand at AI programming,
I was a dismal FAIL. And my firmware buddy quipped "oh,
you have Fortran brain damage". And he was probably
spot on. Too much procedural programming, damages
the brain. He managed to conquer both.

The AI Language I tried my hand at, was something our
Math PhD wrote, and it came on two floppy diskettes.
A lot of booleans were involved. "If Mary has two sheep
and Fred has two sheep, are they sheep farmers?"
And the answer might be, for some reason, "True".
Now, say as a Fortran programmer, you wanted to
totalize their sheep herd and get 2+2=4 printed
on the screen. Well, that was virtually a hopeless
task (or so I concluded from my FAIL comprehension
of the language).

I don't mind admitting I "didn't get it". I didn't
have any background material, course notes, and was
trying to puzzle this stuff out on-screen.

But that language could do the 8-queens problem
like the clappers, and without apparent brute force.
It got the answer in a very short time, on a gutless
processor.

One of the neat features of the language, was when it
did math, it could associate an accuracy indication
with the answer. Such as "the total sheep is 4.001 +/- 0.001
sheep" :-) And that happens to be called "interval arithmetic".
I see the Wiki does a better job of explaining it than
I might.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_arithmetic

Paul