LATEST NEWS [4/29/2005]:These pages have just moved to a NEW SERVER. The site might be under construction for some time. LATEST NEWS [1/23/2004]: Attention Windows XP Users: The Windows .EXE for Pythoñol/PyBabelPhish does NOT run on Windows XP. However, it's known to run on Win98/95. So, XP users are just out of luck. Do NOT report this as a 'bug': the 'bug' is XP impersonating an operating system. LATEST NEWS [1/22/2004]: Pythoñol 2.1 is now available: Major installation bug fix, Python 2.3 and Mac OS X compatibility, a database upgrade, and user interface improvements. A new Windows .exe binary is available for this release. New featuresNew screenshots. Download This site has a new color scheme...finally! LATEST NEWS [1/22/2004]: PyBabelPhish 2.1 is available: A major installation bug fix and several user interface improvements. New featuresDownload LATEST NEWS [1/22/2004]: PyPrint 0.3 now available: Finally ported to PyGtk-2, with several interface improvements. New features. Download. LATEST NEWS [1/22/2004]: PyInstallShield 0.5.1 now available: Bug fixes and interface improvements. New features. Download.
TEXT-TO-SPEECH (TTS) SUPPORT
Text-To-Speech (TTS) Support is a new feature of Pythoñol version 1.1 and better, and PyBabelPhish version 1.1 and better. Text-To-Speech support is NOT supported on Windows, Mac OS X, or other non-Unix/Linux systems! However, Linux/Unix users can hear almost any word on any screen pronounced in Spanish throughout Pythonol and PyBabelPhish, if they have the Text-To-Speech extension properly installed. Text-To-Speech support is made possible by the Festival text-to-speech engine (http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/). NO TECHNICAL SUPPORT IS PROVIDED FOR THIS FEATURE: YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. However, you may consult the help documentation below, as well as the support forum. Users of Windows, Mac OS X, and other operating systems are more than welcome to try to get text-to-speech running on their systems. I recommend using the Festival text-to-speech engine, since it is open source and satisfies the License Agreement. However, if you create a plugin that uses closed-source or proprietary software such as MBrola, Microsoft Speech SDK, or Apple Speech Services, you MAY NOT distribute the plugin to anyone. Doing so violates the License Agreement. (The license strictly prohibits distribution of any plugins or modified versions of the code that rely upon closed-source or proprietary software.)
IMPORTANTNOTE: Please do NOT email me with questions about how to get Festival downloaded, installed, or configured .I am NOT offering technical support to the general public for this feature . This document IS your 'technical support' . If you have other questions ask the folks at the Festival web site for help: (http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/download/festival/) It's THEIR software .
WINDOWSUSERS: The Festival text-to-speech extension is NOTSUPPORTED on Windows versions of Pythoñol . This does not mean you cannot use or attempt to use Festival with Pythoñol . What it does mean is that this feature is only supported on Linux/Unix, and there are no future plans to add text-to-speech support to Windows versions of Pythoñol . However, Windows users may freely download and modify the source code for Pythoñol (doing so in accordance with the Free Education Initiative License), and download the source code for Festival (http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/download/festival/), and try to implement this support yourself . (Be sure to read both the license agreement for Festival, and the license agreement for the Festival voice files, as both are different from one another, and different from the Free Education Initiative License under which Pythoñol is distributed) .
LINUX/UNIXUSERS: To enable text-to-speech support via the Festival extenion currently used by Pythoñol, you must first do ONE of the following:
1. Download the 'Festival-extension' package from http://pythonol.sourceforge.net (IF you are running an Intel-compatible, i586 or better Linux system - glibc), and install the package by running 'PyInstallShield', or 'INSTALL-ME.sh' . It's probably easiest to install the extension in the /festival/ sub-directory of your Pythoñol installation directory, however; this is not required . If you install festival in another directory, you will need to create a symbolic link from your 'festival' executable to 'PYTHONOL_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/festival/festival' . In addition, you will need to edit the 'tts.spanish' script in PYTHONOL_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/festival/, to suit your system .
2. Download the Festival source code and install Festival from http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/download/festival/, and get the necessary spanish voice files: (At last check, the voice files were at http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/download/festival/1.4.3/- in a file named 'festvox_ellpc11k.tar.gz' ) Alternatively, voice files created by by a different group of software developers is available at: http://cslu.cse.ogi.edu/tts/download/. It's probably easiest to install the extension in the /festival/ sub-directory of your Pythoñol installation directory, however; this is not required . If you install festival in another directory, you will need to create a symbolic link from your 'festival' executable to 'PYTHONOL_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/festival/festival' . In addition, you will need to edit the 'tts.spanish' script in PYTHONOL_INSTALLATION_DIRECTORY/festival/, to suit your system .
Be sure to read both the license agreement for Festival, and the license agreement for the Festival voice files, as both are different from one another, and different from the Free Education Initiative License under which Pythoñol is distributed . You should pay CLOSE attention to the Festival licensing agreement, particularly for the voice files . Festival appears to licensed free of usage restrictions, however, the voice files are not, and it appears that the voice files are only licensed for non-commercial use .
After you have installed the extension correctly, you *may* have to edit the script named 'tts.spanish' in the '/festival/' sub-directory of your Pythoñol installation directory to ensure that the Festival extension is correctly configured to play through your sound card, and that the script is correctly configured to utilize your version of Festival . (Read the script's comments at the top of the file.) You should especially check and edit this script if you installed festival from another distribution other than Pythoñol's 'Festival-extension' package, or you installed Festival from source .
If you have the Festival text-to-speech extension installed and usable, you may hear the words pronounced throughout most of Pythoñol by clicking the light blue 'Play' button (with the small black arrow), which is generally located to the left of your screen . For instance, try clicking 'Reference Section' -> 'Basic Spanish' -> 'Colors' on the Pythoñol menu . You will see a 'Play' button next to each word, allowing you to hear a Spanish pronounciation of each color .
For text windows, such as the ones found in the 'Conjugate' and 'Dictionary' sections, you may listen to words and phrases in the text window by clicking the mouse in front of the word or phrase you wish to hear pronounced . Then, click the light blue 'Play' button . If you would like to type in your own words and phrases to hear them pronounced, try clicking the 'Pronounce' tab in Pythoñol .
DRAGANDDROP: Both the 'Pronounce' and 'Translate' (PyBabelPhish) modules within Pythoñol feature drag-and-drop support . You can drag and drop a text file onto the text windows of either of these modules . If all goes well, the file will be displayed in the text window, after which you can simply click 'Play' to hear the text read aloud . When reading longer texts, Pythoñol will only attempt to read up to 30 kilobytes at a time aloud through the Festival speech engine . This is for reasons of speed .
IFYOUHAVETHEFESTIVALEXTENSIONBUTHEARNOPRONUNCIATIONS: Try editing the script named 'tts.spanish' (a Bash script) in the '/festival/' sub-directory of your Pythoñol installation directory to ensure that the Festival extension is correctly configured to play through your sound card, and that the script is correctly configured to utilized your version of Festival . (Read the script's comments at the top of the script file for more information.) You should especially check and edit this script if you installed festival from another distribution other than Pythoñol's 'Festival-extension' package, or you installed Festival from source . You do NOT need to re-start Pythoñol to do this . In fact, its probably better to have Pythoñol running while you make modifications to the script, so you can easily test the Festival extension .
KNOWNLIMITATIONS: Pronunciations through the Festival speech engine are very usable, but not perfect . Occasionally, the Festival engine will 'skip' or 'choke' if it encounters strange words or unfamiliar syllables . Occasionally, Festival will pronounce things you wouldn't expect it to pronounce, such as punctuation marks (i.e . saying "comma" aloud) . When reading longer texts, Pythoñol will only attempt to read up to 30 kilobytes at a time aloud through the Festival speech engine . This is for reasons of speed, so the readings don't appear to 'lag'.
Pythoñol, PyBabelPhish, PyPrint, and PyInstallShield are Copyright (c) 2002-2005 by Erica Andrews (PhrozenSmoke ['at'] yahoo.com). See the license section for a copy of the licenses these programs are distributed under. Any use, modification, or redistribution of Pythoñol, PyBabelPhish, PyPrint, or PyInstallShield, or their components, not in accordance with their respective license is strictly prohibited. Neither the author of this software, nor any of the software itself, is endored by, supported by, or in any way affiliated with the authors of any of the following: PySQLite, SQLiite, Festival.
My 'Technical Playground' projects and their pages are unmaintained and over 14-20 years old. These sites are kept for historic purposes only, were designed MANY years ago, have not been maintained or upgraded, and may or may not function properly. Use at your own risk.
All Open Source Projects on this site and their pages are unmaintained and over 14 years old. These sites are kept for historic purposes only, were designed MANY years ago, have not been maintained or upgraded, and may or may not function properly. Again, these Open Source sites and projects are unmaintained. Use at your own risk.
