[DECtalk] serial synthesizers

[Don]

On 9/7/2021 7:21 PM, Brandon Misch wrote:
> what would be nice is a version of those synthesizers somehow ported
> to android since soft voice already is.

Porting this sort of software is considerably harder than
porting something like MSWord, etc.

These all have timeliness issues involved in the "correctness"
of their operation.  So, you can't just convert the software
but also have to understand how it interfaces to the "time"
aspect of its host hardware.

For example, if you ran some generic desktop software on
a very fast -- or very slow -- computer, it would just run
faster -- or slower.  But, it would still perform the intended
functions.

A calculator program running on a very slow computer will
still come up with the correct answer for any calculations
that it is asked to perform.  Likewise on a very fast
computer.

But, how does "speaking rate" get implemented in a faster
(or slower) computer?  What, in the original design, made it
possible for the developer to ensure that "400 words per minute"
really approximated 400 words per minute -- and not 800 or
200?

Emulators -- like MAME for video games -- go to lengths to
try to mimic the execution times of the emulated hardware.

Despite this, there are game instances that MAME can't
correctly emulate because they don't LITERALLY emulate
the original hardware... they hand-wave and try to get a
close enough approximation that looks correct until you
start looking at specific details.