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. The parameter 3 passed to the Speak method is a combination of SVSFlagsAsync (1) and SVSFPurgeBeforeSpeak (2). If you want to 'queue' multiple phrases change the parameter to 1 and move the 'waiting' loop to just before the PROC_releaseobject():

        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