[DECtalk] decTalk and speech-fx-inc

[Don]

On 7/23/2019 8:36 AM, Josh Kennedy wrote:
> I just wish that 1. There was a much easier way to get ahold of decTalk that
> was or is legal, yet sounds good such as decTalk 4.3 or 4.5. and

I wish there was a way -- ANY way -- to get a modern version of Brief
that would run on my W7 boxes.  And, if I'm being wishful, I'd also like
versions that run under Solaris/SPARC and NetBSD!

And, all of the AfterDark screen savers.

And...

Sadly, the owners of those properties don't seem to share my interest
in making them available in the forms that I want.

Or, at all!

> The makers of decTalk or owners rather, speech-fx-inc are not very helpful
> at all as far as procuring legal versions of decTalk 4.3 or 4.5 that sing,
> have a speak-window, and do not have bugs, and work with narrator as well
Unfortunately -- in both our cases -- there is nothing that forces them to
provide the products we seek.  Borland bought the rights to Brief a few
decades ago and promptly buried it.  Perhaps they found some way to use
the technology that it contained.  Or, maybe they just wanted it off the
market.

Berkeley Systems -- the makers of the AD screen savers -- just seemed to
disappear.

It's possible to make all of these things work in a more modern environment.
(actually, ANY environment) by developing an emulation layer to wedge between
them and the "environment".  But, its a lot of work, a puzzle (cuz you're
dealing with an undocumented product) and no real "return" -- beside personal
satisfaction.

Find an enthusiastic college student and coax him into taking on the task!