Contents

About The Program

Getting Started

Using PC Speaker Instead of Sound Card

Playing Chinese File

Shareware Information


About The Program

DSPEAK (DingDang Speaks Chinese) can read a standard GB (Guo Biao) coded Chinese text file, and speak through the speakers of IBM compatible computer. The program will also display Chinese characters, punctuation or English on screen while reading.

There are two variations of this program. The first variation require you have a multimedia compatible system.  It calls sound card through Windows standard Multimedia Control Interface, or MCI. If you can play Windows wave file by using Windows Recorder program, then you have Windows compatible sound card installed. The second variation can play the sound through your sound card or through your PC speaker!  It uses a Visual Basic multimedia control file "tegomm.vbx" by TegoSoft. You must copy the file "tegomm.vbx" to your Windows system directory, normally "c:\windows\system". Please read the file "license.txt" for copyright notice from TegoSoft. Instead of making two versions of the same program, I simply release the variation one using even version numbers and variation two odd version numbers. I plan to post variation one mainly to ftp-site:

ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/win3/sound/dspeak14.zip

and variation two mainly to

ftp.ifcss.org:/pub/software/ms-win/util/dspeak15.zip

Both of the variations play standard Wave file as well. The last two digits in file name is version number which may differ from that used in this document.

You will need a Chinese word processor if you want to create GB text file. A Chinese character font is needed to display the Chinese characters. You can obtain this author's Chinese word processor which also including two Chinese character fonts in the following ftp-archive site:

ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/win3/wp/ddwin30.zip

The DOS version of this program is called "DingDang Play". The DOS version can not display Chinese text on screen. It also require a SoundBlaster compatible card to use it.  It contain utilities to record your own voice database however. The recorded Chinese voice database file can be used by the Windows programs. The shareware version can be found in:

ftp.coast.net:/SimTel/msdos/sound/ddplay12.zip

The Chinese voice database file is close to 4MB. The shareware version only includes part of this file but should be enough for demonstration purposes. The following is the file list in the standard DingDang Speak package:

dspeak.exe	;the main program

dspeak.gb	;pinyin index file

dspeak.wav	;the voice database file (partial in shareware)

dspeak.hlp	;help file

file_id.diz	;zip description file for BBS

sample.gb	;sample Chinese text file

read.me	;latest information on program update

thanks.wav                 ;say thanks (choose play before open any file)


Getting Started

Make a subdirectory on your hard drive like "C:\DSPEAK" and unzip all files to this directory. You should have unzipped all the files already when you are reading this file. To add this program to one of your Windows group: Open that group folder from Program Manager. Choose "New" menu item under "File" and press return to add new "Program Item". Then enter the information similar like the following:

  Description: 	DingDang Speak

  Command Line:	c:\dspeak\speak.exe

To play a wave file, just choose "Open" menu item to open the file. Then choose "Play" to play the file. You can play the file as many times as you like. The program will treat a file as a standard Windows wave file if the file extension is ".WAV". Otherwise, the program will treat the file as GB coded Chinese text file.

To play a Chinese file, just open the file, then choose "Play". Note that in shareware version,  less than 1/4 of the Chinese characters will be pronounced correctly. This is because the full Chinese voice file is not included in the shareware version.

If you do not have Chinese font file "song16.fon" in your current directory, you will not be able to see Chinese text displayed in the main window.  You can get "song16.fon" from the author's Chinese word processor package mentioned previously. The program should work with any standard 16x16 bitmap Chinese font file since it will auto-detects missing sections. If you prefer traditional Chinese characters, you can get the font file "fan16.fon" from this author's Chinese word processor package also.  You can tell DSPEAK to load the font file in other directory by specifying the full path in "[DingDang]" section, "font" entry, in file DSPEAK.INI in your Windows directory. The following is an example:

[Recent File List]

File1=C:\WINDOWS\DING.WAV

File2=D:\DDWIN\DONDON.GB

[DingDang]

font=D:\DDWIN\SONG16.FON

pcSpeaker = 0

The last line "pcSpeaker" is used only for the variation two mentioned before. Use "pcSpeaker=0" to use standard sound card. Use "pcSpeaker=1" to use PC Speaker without sound card.


Playing Chinese File

Just open any standard GB coded Chinese text file to play it. Each Chinese characters will be pronounced by the PinYin found in PinYin index file "dspeak.gb". This file is a standard GB coded Chinese text file and can be edited by DingDang Chinese word processor for Windows. You can play this file too with DingDang SPEAK. Please do not add or delete any lines in the file. If a character has multiple PinYin's, the first PinYin found in the index file will be used.

Any punctuation or English letters will be ignored. They will still be displayed on screen correctly though.

You can cancel the speaking any time by choose "Cancel" menu item. To skip a paragraph, you can choose "Skip" menu item. The program will continue to play from beginning of the next paragraph if available. Choose "exit" to quit the program.

To pause the speaking, you can simply click the title bar and hold your mouse like you are about to drag the window. DingDang will continue to play when you release the mouse.

This program can work on background.

This program should work on any sound card you have installed. It interact with your system hardware only through standard Window's API (Application Program Interface) calls.

Up to four most recently opened files will be listed under "File" menu for speeding access.


Shareware Information

The full voice file is about 4MB. It is too big to be included in shareware version. I hope this is enough to demonstrate the functionality of the program.  The shareware program may not play correctly on your GB text file since characters not in the voice file will be played by characters which are in the file. The standard version will play all characters correctly.

If you like the program, you must register. Please send $40 (check, money order etc., anything cashable in US bank) and your address to:

Yijun Ding

12640 Southridge Dr.

Little Rock, AR 72212

USA

The above price includes first class Air Mail shipping to any where on earth!

You will get the full Chinese voice database compressed on two 3.5'' high density disks, with the latest version of the program. In the shareware version, DingDang Speak Help window is automatically opened when you start the program. And you will be shown here. You can go to main window easily though by just a mouse click. Needless to say, you will not see the shareware notice when you start the standard version of the program.

If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact me. My e-mail address is "yding@pitt.edu". But I normally use and check my wife's account only which is "xxye@curie.ualr.edu". My home phone number is (501)228-5608.

Thanks for your interest to use this program.