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1989-06-24
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Digitized Voice Programmer's Toolkit for the PC
-----------------------------------------------
Version 1.0
Copyright (c) 1988,1989, Farpoint Software
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
**************************************************************************
* *
* To those of you who have HIDI.ARC and/or DIGITS.ARC, welcome back. *
* This new release will serve as a major upgrade to things you already *
* have. *
* *
**************************************************************************
Introduction
------------
This toolkit is a combination of software and hardware designed for the
purpose of mechanizing and simplifying the process by which programmers may
create digitized voice recordings, store them on disk, edit the voice data
files, and incorporate digitized voice playback into their own high-level
language programs.
The recording of digitized voice requires a small, inexpensive hardware device
to be built. Schematics and printed circuit board layout files are provided
for this device.
Playback of the digitized voice, however, requires NO SPECIAL HARDWARE. The
sound is produced with the built-in speaker provided in nearly all PC's and
PC-compatible machines. This means that programs may be written for general
distribution which will play voice messages on the user's machine as it
exists.
Here is a list of the major features of the current software package:
(1) Operates under the DOS environment.
(2) Provides a full set of voice record/playback control routines which
are directly callable from many high-level languages including C
and Pascal. They are also of course callable from assembly language.
(3) All voice operations proceed IN THE BACKGROUND. The control routines
return to the caller immediately, and voice playback occurs
simultaneously with the continuing execution of the main program.
The main program may call a status routine at any time to check on
the progress of the voice playback.
(4) There are no length limitations on either the size of the memory
buffers or the size of the voice data files on disk other than the
physical limits of the machine itself. 64k is not a special number.
(5) A sophisticated voice data file editor is provided. This gives the
programmer a set of capabilities similar to those available on a
conventional tape recorder. Position markers, live overwriting,
selective erasure, cut-and-paste, and assorted other features make
the produciton of "refined" voice files an easy task.
(6) Several short example programs are included, written in both C and
assembly language, which demonstrate the use of the calls to the
voice modules. There is even an example of a memory-resident program
which detects the pressing of the left shift key and plays a short
voice message when this occurs. (Foreground processing continues
undisturbed.)
Shareware Notice
----------------
The Digitized Voice Programmer's Toolkit is released as Shareware. This is
copyrighted material; it is NOT "free software". You are permitted to
experiment with this package long enough to determine if it suits your needs,
but if you will be making use of the material in your own programs, then a
license fee of $50 is required. NO PROGRAM WHICH MAKES USE OF THE MATERIALS
IN THIS TOOLKIT MAY BE SOLD COMMERCIALLY OR ON A CONTRACT BASIS UNLESS THE
SELLER HAS PAID THE LICENSE FEE. Please make the check or money order payable
to:
Farpoint Software
2501 Afton Court
League City, Texas 77573
For convenience, a registration form is included in the file REGISTER.FRM.
As a registered user, you will receive updates automatically long before they
are released to BBS's. You will also receive a copy of the source code to the
VDFE editor. Registered users, of course, are given higher priority if
programming assistance or hardware construction assistance is requested.
You are granted permission to distribute copies of the Digitized Voice
Programmer's Toolkit, provided that (1) no fee is charged for such copies,
other that a nominal disk duplication fee, (2) these files are distributed
in their original, unmodified form, and (3) ALL the files in the original
archive are included with each copy. (See "List of Files" below.)
If you paid a "disk duplication fee" or other such fee to a distributor of
public domain and shareware programs, be aware that the payment of this fee
DOES NOT constitute registration of this Toolkit. Likewise, the payment of a
fee to any Bulletin Board Service for the time required to download this
Toolkit DOES NOT constitute registration. Registration occurs only through
direct interaction with Farpoint Software.
If more information is needed, write or contact Alan D. Jones through
Compuserve Information Service at user ID 74030,554.
List of Files
-------------
The files included with the Digitized Voice Programmer's Toolkit are:
BIN2ASM
BIN2ASM.C
BIN2ASM.EXE
EMBEDDED
EMBEDDED.C
EMBEDDED.EXE
EVM.PRE
EVM.SUF
EVM.VOI
LONGTEST.VOI
README.1ST
REGISTER.FRM
RUN_ME.BAT
TSR
TSR.ASM
TSR.EXE
TSRVM.PRE
TSRVM.SUF
TSRVM.VOI
VDFE.EXE
VMSCH.HPP
VOICEKIT.DOC
VPMOD.ASM
VPMOD.DOC
VPMOD.H
VPMOD.OBJ
VPTEST
VPTEST.C
VPTEST.EXE
VRMOD.ASM
VRMOD.DOC
VRMOD.H
VRMOD.OBJ
VRTEST
VRTEST.C
VRTEST.EXE
If you received the Toolkit with any of the above files missing, please
notify Farpoint Software.
Description of Voice Subroutine Modules
---------------------------------------
The key software elements in the kit are two assembly language programs,
VRMOD.ASM and VPMOD.ASM, and their assembled OBJ files. These are not stand-
alone programs. They are designed to be linked with other programs to provide
the voice control routines. The calls associated with recording are in
VRMOD, and the calls associated with playback are in VPMOD. Any given program
may be linked with either or both of these modules. Typically, a program
designed for general distribution would be linked only with VPMOD, since
recording requires the hardware device.
The external hooks to the two modules consist of various "public" procedure
names. All procedures use the Pascal calling convention, since most high-level
language compilers can support this calling method. The Pascal calling
convention has the following meaning:
(1) Procedure names are all caps, and are not preceeded by an underscore.
(2) Procedures are called with "far" (intersegment) calls.
(3) Short return values appear in the AX register; long return values
appear in DX:AX.
(4) Parameters are pushed onto the stack in left-to-right order; i.e. the
first parameter in the list is pushed first. If the parameter is a
doubleword, then the high order word is pushed first.
(5) The called subroutine is responsible for clearing the parameters from
the stack upon return.
The above list will be of interest primarily to assembly language programmers.
When working in a high-level language, it is necessary only to make sure that
the compiler is using the proper calling method. For C programs, two header
files have been included. They are VRMOD.H and VPMOD.H. At the beginning of
any C program which is to use the voice playback routines, insert the line:
#include "vpmod.h"
This file contains prototypes of all procedure calls in VPMOD.ASM, declared
in a way