[DECtalk] decTalk 4.4 4.5 and 4.6 as sapi5?

[Don]

On 6/26/2021 8:08 AM, Josh Kennedy wrote:
> well in that case since it is so darn complicated, I'm just going to use it
> with NVDA and I'm just going to assume that it's abandoned and be done with
> it. I really don't think he's going to care if I use some 25 to 30 year old
> version of DECTALK, that nobody is hardly using anyway. and who knows, maybe
> I can pay some developer out there to make a SAPI5 version of the 4.41
> version of DECTALK.
As I said, you're better off picking a FOSS project that IS SUPPORTED
so that it will continue to evolve.  Why throw money/effort after an
obsolete product that will never see anything more than "token efforts" to
fix existing problems?

Instead, latch onto the efforts and enthusiasm of folks who have a
"clean" development effort that has the prospect of moving forward.
This allows you to influence the direction THAT effort takes
(because, at the very least, you are an "interested user") while
it is being actively developed instead of, later, wondering why
it evolved into something that doesn't fit your needs.

I seriously considered buying a source license for DECtalk before
I started working on my own synthesizers; the cost would have
been considerably less than the effort to "roll my own" (my
time is not cheap!).

But, I'd be left with a *closed* product that only *I* could
improve upon.  I couldn't benefit from the efforts and ideas
of others because they couldn't legally SEE the source code
that I'd have licensed!

Personally, I think DECtalk's speech is considerably less natural
than many other technologies.  It's biggest advantage is the smaller
size of the product.  But, that really only affects people who are
"counting bytes" (like me), not folks with gigabytes of memory and
oodles of disk space!

Good luck!