BBC BASIC Programmers' Reference

by Richard Russell, October 2016

The supplied example program SPEAK.BBC outputs the speech synchronously, that is PROCspeak() does not return to the caller until the speech output is complete. That will often be what is wanted, but in some circumstances you may wish to get on with doing something else while a phrase is being spoken. The programs below illustrate how that may be achieved; the first uses the ActiveX (COM automation) approach used in SPEAK.BBC and the second uses direct calls to the SAPI5 COM objects.

The PROCspeakasync() routine returns immediately and the FNisspeaking() function allows the current status to be polled so you can discover when the speech is finished:

      REM. Text-to-speech demonstration program using COMLIB
      REM. R.T.Russell, 24-Apr-2007

      INSTALL @lib$+"COMLIBA"

      ON ERROR PROC_comexit : PRINT 'REPORT$ : END
      ON CLOSE PROC_comexit : QUIT

      PROC_cominit

      Pitch% = 0
      Speed% = 0
      Voice$ = ""

      tts% = FN_createobject("Sapi.SpVoice")
      REPEAT
        READ phrase$
        PRINT phrase$
        PROCspeakasync(tts%,phrase$,Pitch%,Speed%,Voice$)
        REPEAT
          WAIT 100
          PRINT "Waiting..."
        UNTIL NOT FNisspeaking(tts%)
      UNTIL phrase$ = ""
      PROC_releaseobject(tts%)
      PROC_comexit
      END

      DATA "BBC BASIC for Windows is an advanced implementation of BBC BASIC for Microsoft Windows,"
      DATA "providing the programmer with a familiar language but with a modern interface."
      DATA "It combines the simplicity of BASIC with the sophistication of a structured language,"
      DATA "allowing you to write utilities and games, use sound and graphics, perform calculations"
      DATA "and create complete Windows applications."
      DATA "In short, using BBC BASIC you will be able to make your PC do what you want it to."
      DATA

      DEF PROCspeakasync(tts%,phrase$,pitch%,speed%,voice$)
      LOCAL qual$
      qual$ = "<PITCH ABSMIDDLE="""""+STR$pitch%+"""""/><RATE ABSSPEED="""""+STR$speed%+"""""/>"
      IF voice$<>"" qual$ += "<VOICE REQUIRED=""""NAME="+voice$+"""""/>"
      PROC_callmethod(tts%, "Speak("""+qual$+phrase$+""",3)")
      ENDPROC

      DEF FNisspeaking(tts%)
      = FN_getvaluestr(tts%,"Status.RunningState") <> "1"

The PROC_voice_speak() routine returns immediately and the FN_voice_status() function allows the current status to be polled so you can discover when the speech is finished:

      REM. Text-to-speech demonstration program: asynchronous
      REM. Richard Russell, 18-Apr-2012
      SPF_ASYNC = 1
      SPRS_DONE = 1

      ON ERROR SYS `CoUninitialize` : PRINT 'REPORT$ : END
      ON CLOSE SYS `CoUninitialize` : QUIT

      SYS "LoadLibrary","OLE32.DLL" TO O%
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoInitialize" TO `CoInitialize`
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoUninitialize" TO `CoUninitialize`
      SYS "GetProcAddress",O%,"CoCreateInstance" TO `CoCreateInstance`
      SYS `CoInitialize`,0

      voice% = FN_voice_create
      REPEAT
        READ phrase$
        PRINT phrase$
        PROC_voice_speak(voice%, phrase$)
        REPEAT
            WAIT 100
            PRINT "Waiting..."
        UNTIL FN_voice_status(voice%) = SPRS_DONE
      UNTIL phrase$ = ""
      PROC_voice_free(voice%)

      SYS `CoUninitialize`
      END

      DATA "BBC BASIC for Windows is an advanced implementation of BBC BASIC for Microsoft Windows,"
      DATA "providing the programmer with a familiar language but with a modern interface."
      DATA "It combines the simplicity of BASIC with the sophistication of a structured language,"
      DATA "allowing you to write utilities and games, use sound and graphics, perform calculations"
      DATA "and create complete Windows applications."
      DATA "In short, using BBC BASIC you will be able to make your PC do what you want it to."
      DATA

      DEF FN_voice_create
      LOCAL C%, I%, V%
      DIM C% LOCAL 15, I% LOCAL 15
      C%!0 = &96749377 : C%!4 = &11D23391 : C%!8 = &C000E39E : C%!12 = &9673794F
      I%!0 = &6C44DF74 : I%!4 = &499272B9 : I%!8 = &99EFECA1 : I%!12 = &D422046E
      SYS `CoCreateInstance`, C%, 0, 5, I%, ^V%
      IF V%=0 ERROR 100, "SAPI5 not available"
      = V%

      DEF PROC_voice_speak(V%, M$)
      LOCAL M%
      DIM M% LOCAL 2*LENM$+1
      SYS "MultiByteToWideChar", 0, 0, M$, -1, M%, LENM$+1
      SYS !(!V%+80), V%, M%, SPF_ASYNC, 0
      ENDPROC

      DEF FN_voice_status(V%)
      LOCAL spvs{}
      DIM spvs{ulCurrentStream%, ulLastStreamQueued%, hrLastResult%, dwRunningState%, \
      \        ulInputWordPos%, ulInputWordLen%, ulInputSentPos%, ulInputSentLen%, \
      \        lBookmarkId%, PhonemeId%, VisemeId%, dwReserved1%, dwReserved2%}
      SYS !(!V%+88), V%, spvs{}, 0
      = spvs.dwRunningState%

      DEF PROC_voice_free(V%)
      SYS !(!V%+8), V%
      ENDPROC