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SECTION TWO INSTALLING AND LOADING VOCAL-EYES 2.1: INTRODUCTION In this section of your Vocal-Eyes users' guide we will begin by describing the simple process of installing Vocal-Eyes onto your hard drive or start-up floppy diskette. We'll talk a little about speech synthesizers and the special programs known as device drivers which you may need in order to allow Vocal-Eyes and your particular synthesizer to work together to their fullest ability. After that, we'll load and run the Vocal-Eyes screen reader program itself. But first, a brief word to Sounding Board users. 2.2: THE SOUNDING BOARD SOFTWARE Vocal-Eyes has been optimized to work best with the Sounding Board speech synthesizer. However you will need Version 2.0 or higher of the Sounding Board software in order to run Vocal-Eyes. You will find a copy of the latest version of this software on your master diskette. Depending on your current version of the Sounding Board software, several useful features may have been added to the software. If you are interested in the new features, contact GW Micro for instructions on how to obtain the upgrade documentation. 2.3: INSTALLING VOCAL-EYES As we mentioned in the last section, you have been provided with two copies of the Vocal-Eyes software: one copy on a 5 1/4" diskette and another on a 3 1/2" diskette. These are your Vocal-Eyes master diskettes. They contain all of the program files you will need to run Vocal-Eyes. If you haven't done so already, we urge you to make a second, working copy of the master diskette and then to put the original copy in a safe place. If you are already using a screen reader, feel free to continue to use it throughout the installation process. Be forewarned, however, that once you're up and running with Vocal-Eyes you are not likely to ever want to go back to your old software again. If you have a hard drive system, you will probably want to install Vocal-Eyes into a subdirectory, perhaps one called SPEECH. You may already have just such a subdirectory on your hard drive. If not, use the DOS MD command to create one as follows: From the DOS C: prompt, type: MD \SPEECH and then press ENTER. Now, log onto your new subdirectory by typing: CD\SPEECH and then pressing ENTER. Floppy drive users: place your start-up diskette, or any blank formatted diskette, into the B: drive of your system. Type B: and then press ENTER to log onto this drive. Next, if desired, use the MD make directory command to create a SPEECH subdirectory for your start-up diskette similar to the one we just created for hard drive users. Type CD\SPEECH to log onto this subdirectory. You will not need all of the files on your master diskette in order to run Vocal-Eyes. Different users will need different combinations of program files, depending on which speech synthesizer you will be using. If you wish to make the installation simple, you can copy the entire contents of the master diskette to your SPEECH directory. This will copy a few files which may not be required but it greatly simplifies the installation process. To accomplish this task, place your Vocal-Eyes master diskette into your A: drive. Now, from within your hard drive subdirectory, or your B: drive, type: COPY A:\*.* Don't forget to press ENTER to accept the above command. DOS will then copy each and every file automatically for you. If you wish to only copy those files which are required, follow the instructions below. Even if you have copied all of the files, still read the following text. However, when it tells you to copy a certain file, you can rest assured that file has already been copied for you. 2.3.1: THE VOCAL-EYES PROGRAM FILES All Vocal-Eyes users will need to copy the following two files onto their hard drive subdirectory or start-up diskette: VE.COM VE.OVL Place your Vocal-Eyes master diskette into your A: drive. Now, from within your hard drive subdirectory, or your B: drive, type: COPY A:VE.COM COPY A:VE.OVL Type these and all following DOS commands in either lower or upper case letters. DOS will accept either as a valid command. These particular DOS commands will copy your Vocal-Eyes program files onto the appropriate drive. If you are using a Small Talk Lite or another single drive system, do the following: Place your master diskette into the drive and type: COPY A:VE.COM B: COPY A:VE.OVL B: You will be prompted to insert the target diskette after it has been read from the source diskette. If you plan on using the HELP option offered in Vocal-Eyes' Voice Control Panel, you will also want to copy the file: VE.HLP into your SPEECH directory. Copy this file in the same fashion you copied VE.COM and VE.OVL. You may also wish to copy the VE_SET.EXE utility. This utility will be discussed in appendix G. It allows you to convert a Vocal-Eyes voice environment (.SET) to a standard ASCII text file for easy reading. If you wish to use this utility program, you will also want to copy the file: VE_SET.EXE into your SPEECH directory. Copy this file in the same fashion you copied the above files. 2.3.2: COPYING THE SOUNDING BOARD SOFTWARE Sounding Board users, you will need to copy the latest versions of SBLOAD.COM and SB.COM onto your hard drive subdirectory or start-up diskette. Use the following DOS command to copy both program files at once: COPY A:SB*.COM Small Talk Lite or other single drive system users: insert your master diskette into the drive and type: COPY A:SB*.COM B: As before, you will be prompted to insert the diskette for drive A (the source) and for drive B (the target) for each of the two files. If you are not using the Sounding Board speech synthesizer, do not copy the SBLOAD.COM and SB.COM files. Instead, read the next topic for a discussion of synthesizer device drivers. 2.3.3: VOCAL-EYES SYNTHESIZER DEVICE DRIVERS If you are not using the Sounding Board speech synthesizer or plan on using other synthesizers as well, then you will need to copy one or more (depending on how many different synthesizers you will be using with Vocal-Eyes) of the special "device drivers" which are to be found on your Vocal-Eyes master diskette. A device driver is a small program which, when installed, allows you to connect a specific piece of equipment, or device, to your PC in an independent manner. In this case that piece of equipment will be a speech synthesizer. The Vocal-Eyes program itself, VE.COM was written specifically for the Sounding Board. It is up to the device driver to correctly translate the Sounding Board commands to work with your individual synthesizer. If you are not using the Sounding Board, this does not hinder the performance in any way. In fact, it offers you more flexibility. You don't need a special version of Vocal-Eyes to work with each synthesizer. Instead, replace the synthesizer device driver with the device driver of the synthesizer you wish to use. Vocal-Eyes will work just like it always did assuming your new synthesizer is capable of all commands Vocal-Eyes uses. Such as ten rates, volumes and pitch as well as all other commands. See appendix F: Speech Synthesizers, for a complete discussion of what each synthesizer is capable of. You will find a number of different device drivers on your Vocal-Eyes master diskette. Use the DOS DIR command to display a listing of all the files on this diskette. It will probably be quite obvious which device driver you will need to run your synthesizer with Vocal-Eyes. Below is a list of currently supported synthesizers and their corresponding device driver names. ACCENT synthesizers ACCENT.COM APOLLO (external) APOLLO.COM APOLLO (internal) INAPOLLO.COM Artic boards which run SONIX ARTIC.COM Audapter AUDAPTER.COM ASP VEASP.COM Braille 'n Speak BNSPEAK.COM DECtalk DECTALK.COM DoubleTalk PC DBLTALK.COM ECHO PC and ECHO GP ECHOPC.COM Internal ECHO PC+, MC and 1000 INTECHO.COM Prose 4000 PROSE4.COM Personal Speech System - A PSSA.COM Personal Speech System - B PSSB.COM Portable DECtalk PDECTALK.COM Votalker ARTIC.COM Others GENERIC.COM Notice the driver called GENERIC.COM. This driver can be customized for a synthesizer which is not directly supported by one of the other device drivers. NOTE: If you cannot determine which device driver your particular synthesizer requires, or wish to find out more about a particular driver, consult APPENDIX F: SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS for a complete listing of all supported speech systems and the device drivers they require as well as a complete description of each. Now that you've determined which device driver you will need in order to operate Vocal-Eyes with your particular synthesizer, copy the driver onto your hard drive or start-up diskette with the following DOS command assuming you are logged on the drive and subdirectory of where you wish it copied: COPY A:[Device driver name] Congratulations! You have just successfully installed Vocal-Eyes! 2.4: STARTING UP VOCAL-EYES Now that you have the necessary Vocal-Eyes files installed on your hard drive or start-up diskette, it's time to say goodbye forever to your old screen reader, or to silent computing, as we take you step by step through the process of loading and running Vocal-Eyes. 2.4.1: LOADING YOUR SPEECH SOFTWARE Before you can load Vocal-Eyes into your PC's memory, you must first log onto the subdirectory or drive containing your speech software and load any programs required by your particular synthesizer. Most internal synthesizers require first loading the manufactured software before it can be used. Owners of the Sounding Board, for instance, must first load the SBLOAD.COM and SB.COM files by typing in turn, following each command with a press of the ENTER key: SBLOAD SB Of course you may add any command line parameters. Votalker users will need to load the SONIX and the TTS software in memory by typing in turn, following each command with a press of the ENTER key: SONIX TTS Echo PC users can skip this step, since the Echo speech programs are built into the synthesizer itself, whereas the Echo PC+ users must type the following command: TALK NOTE: Your synthesizer software may also require the addition of certain switches, or parameters, to the command line. Consult your speech synthesizer documentation for a discussion of these parameters. 2.4.2: LOADING THE DEVICE DRIVER Now that you've loaded your speech software into your PC's memory, all non-Sounding Board synthesizer users will need to install the appropriate synthesizer device driver. If you haven't copied the driver that matches your particular synthesizer yet, consult APPENDIX F: SPEECH SYNTHESIZERS at this point to determine the name of the driver you want and then copy this driver onto your hard drive or start-up diskette. Remember, if you are using the Sounding Board, all you have to do is load SBLOAD.COM and SB.COM as the Sounding Board manuals specifies. Vocal-Eyes will seek out the software and get all the information it needs automatically. To install your synthesizer's device driver into your PC's memory, you will need to type the name of the driver followed by any command line parameters. There are actually two types of command line parameters. Those that begin with /! (slash exclamation point) and those that begin only with a / (slash). Commands with the exclamation point can only be issued the first time the driver is loaded each session (one-time startup parameters). Commands without the exclamation point can be done anytime. It can be issued the first time the driver is loaded or the 100th time (any-time parameters). /!Cn or /!Ln (Port assignment) Certain synthesizers are hooked to a serial or parallel port. Or maybe, the synthesizer is interfaced through the port but is not directly connected to it. For example, an external ECHOPC would be plugged into any of the COM ports. The internal ACCENT is interfaced through LPT3 but is not directly connected to LPT3. On the other hand, the Votalker or DoubleTalk PC, for example, do not require a port. If you are using these types of synthesizers, you do not have to specify the port assignment. If you are using an external Accent, Braille 'n Speak, DECtalk, ECHO PC, Personal Speech system, Audapter, ASP, external Apollo or generic, you must specify the port it is connected to. However, if you are using an Artic board, Votalker, Internal Echo, Prose 4000, DoubleTalk PC or an internal Apollo, you do not have to specify a port. If you do specify a port, the driver will simply ignore it anyway. If you have a synthesizer which requires a port assignment and you do not specify one, the driver will print the following message and abort. Speech port not specified! Don't worry if you get this error message, simply issue the command again. But this time include the port assignment command. This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes which port your synthesizer is connected. Enter this parameter by typing /! and then following it with either a C or an L (C standing for COM port and L for LPT port) and a number designating the number of the port. /!C1, for instance, informs Vocal-Eyes that your synthesizer is connected to COM1. /!L3, on the other hand, designates LPT3 as the appropriate port. You can specify any of the three LPT ports 1-3 or any of the four COM ports 1-4. The next four commands, BAUD, Parity, Data bits and Stop bits only relate to synthesizer hooked up to serial port, COM1 - COM4. If you are not using a serial synthesizer, you will not have to supply any of this information. By default, Vocal-Eyes uses 9600 BAUD, 8 data bits, no parity and 1 stop bit. If this is your current configuration, you will not have to supply these commands either. If your configuration differs from the defaults, you only need to supply the information which is different. /!Bn (Baud rate assignment) This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the baud rate of your synthesizer. If you are using a parallel synthesizer, this command will be ignored. If you do not specify this parameter, the device driver will default to 9600 BAUD. If you wish to use the command, use one of the following forms: /!B1 = 1200 baud /!B2 = 2400 baud /!B3 = 300 baud /!B4 = 4800 baud /!B9 = 9600 baud /!Pn (Parity assignment) This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the parity required by your speech synthesizer. If you are using a parallel synthesizer, this command will be ignored. Enter N for No parity, O for odd parity or E for Even parity after the /!P. For example, /!PO would signal Odd parity and /!PN would signal no parity. If you do not use this parameter, the device driver will default to no parity. /!Dn (Data bits assignment) This parameter informs Vocal-Eyes the number of data bits required by your speech synthesizer. If you are using a parallel synthesizer, this command will be ignored. Enter /!D7 for 7 data bits or /!D8 for 8 data bits. If you do not use this parameter, the device driver will default to 8 data bits. /!Sn (Stop bits assignment) This parameter informs the number of stop bits required by your speech synthesizer. If you are using a parallel synthesizer, this command will be ignored. Enter /!S1 for 1 stop bit or /!S2 for 2 stop bits. If you do not use this parameter, the device driver will default to 1 stop bit. Don't worry if the above sounds rather confusing. Consult your speech synthesizer manual. The appropriate settings for all of the above parameters should be readily available in the manual. When you have typed in the name of your driver followed by whichever switches are appropriate--don't forget to press ENTER after typing in the complete command-- a message should be printed to the screen and also spoken through your synthesizer. The message contains the name of the synthesizer and the version number of the device driver. If you do not get this message, there is a problem. You must fix the problem before going on. If you do not wish to hear this message, add a ; (semicolon) to the end of the command line parameter. This signals the driver not to speak the initial message. For example: ECHOPC /!C1/!B4; This will load the device driver for the external echo synthesizer using COM1 at 4800 baud, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and no parity. The welcome message will be printed to the screen but will not be spoken since the command line ended with the ;. PSSB /!L1 This will load the device driver for the Personal Speech System version B synthesizer using LPT1. Since this is being used on a parallel synthesizer, there is no need to specify the baud, data bits, stop bits or parity. The initial message will be printed to the screen and spoken. DBLTALK This will load the device driver for the DoubleTalk PC. Notice a speech port was not necessary since the DoubleTalk PC is internal and does not emulate a port. That's it! You have successfully installed your synthesizer's device driver! There are other commands supported by each driver as well. For example, you can load an exception dictionary. This is a dictionary used to correctly pronounce words which previously are mispronounced by your synthesizer. Please refer to appendix F for a detailed description of all available command line parameters. 2.4.3: LOADING VOCAL-EYES Now that you've installed your speech synthesizer software, if required, and device driver (remember, Sounding Board users, you do not need to install a device driver) are you ready to start up Vocal-Eyes? Are you still logged onto your Vocal-Eyes hard drive subdirectory or start-up diskette? If so, then all you have to do to load and run Vocal-Eyes is to type VE and then press ENTER. Go ahead, do it now. You should hear: Vocal-Eyes Version X.X Also, the following will be printed to the screen: Vocal-Eyes Version X.X Copyright (c) 1990-91 by GW Micro Written by Douglas Geoffray Remember if you did not want to hear the initial message when loading the device driver, you ended the command line with a ; (semicolon). Sounding Board users, you also can end the command line with a ; to suppress the initial message. Well, you can do the same thing with Vocal-Eyes. If you typed: VE; instead of just VE the screen will still contain the same information but the initial message will not be spoken. It is very important that you are currently logged into the directory which contains Vocal-Eyes. This is because when you first startup Vocal-Eyes each session, Vocal-Eyes remembers the drive and directory you are currently in. It uses this location for several purposes. Setting the PATH statement to startup Vocal-Eyes is not good enough. You should be in the directory before starting up Vocal-Eyes. There--you have successfully loaded Vocal-Eyes into your computer's RAM or random access memory. And there it will stay, working along with you, throughout your PC work session. 2.5: A NOTE ABOUT BATCH FILES It would be monumentally inconvenient for you to have to memorize and enter every one of the device driver switches (not to mention several other switches you'll be learning about as we progress our way through this manual) every time you want to start up Vocal-Eyes. Which is why, right from the start, we encourage you to put your Vocal-Eyes start-up commands into a batch file. Better yet--how about your AUTOEXEC.BAT file? For those of you who are unfamiliar with the concept of batch files: A batch file is a group of DOS commands, a batch of them, which have been written one DOS command per line and saved in what is known as a standard, or ASCII, text file. When this file is invoked from DOS by the simple means of typing its name and then pressing ENTER, DOS executes the commands one at a time and in the order they were placed into the batch file. Use NOTEWORTHY, or any other word processor with a "Save to standard ASCII text file" option, to create your batch file, or to add your Vocal-Eyes commands to your AUTOEXEC.BAT batch file. Here's an example of a batch file, which we'll call SPEECH.BAT. It assumes that you are using the Votalker speech system and that you have placed all the appropriate files into a SPEECH subdirectory on your hard drive or start-up diskette. CD\SPEECH SONIX TTS ARTIC VE cd\ Owners of the Sounding Board speech synthesizer, on the contrary, would need only add the lines: CD\SPEECH SBLOAD SB VE CD\ Now, having created and then saved a batch file, all you need do is type SPEECH and then press ENTER. DOS will execute each of your commands in turn and voila--instant speech! NOTE: For more on batch files, see your DOS manual. 2.6: TAKING ADVANTAGE OF EXTENDED AND EXPANDED MEMORY Unless you tell Vocal-Eyes otherwise, it will load in your DOS RAM. If you accept all the defaults, it will take around 50K. This value can range anywhere from about 46K to 63K depending on several parameters such as how many RAM SET files you plan on having in memory at one time, how big your key label dictionary is, how big your character dictionary is etc. Most of the time, the size of Vocal-Eyes will not be a problem. However, at times you may run an applications program and be informed that you do not have enough memory. Here is where you may consider using extended memory (XMS) or expanded memory (EMS). If you see yourself never having a memory problem, it is best to use DOS RAM. If you use expanded or extended memory, we suggest you try using Vocal-Eyes with many applications to see if there is going to be a conflict. Certain programs may not work properly if someone is using expanded or extended memory. Expanded memory is more sensitive then extended. Very rarely will you have problems with extended memory. However, please save your work frequently at first until you can assume there is no problem. This is not meant to scare you out of using extended or expanded memory. This is a great way of saving memory. Simply be aware at first and check things out before its too late. If there is going to be a problem, it will show up very quickly. Again, you probably will not have any problems. But it's better to be safe then sorry! Although giving a complete description of extended and expanded memory is beyond the scope of this manual, we will include a brief description below. PC machines using the 8088 or 8086 CPU can address 1MB of storage. 640K has been allocated for DOS RAM and the other 384K has been allocated for BIOS, ROM version of BASIC, video systems and other peripherals. If you wish to use more then 640K of RAM on these machines, you need to use Expanded Memory. Intel engineers came up with a way for MS-DOS machines to access additional memory. Intel joined Lotus and Microsoft and, drawing from minicomputer memory architectures, defined a way to use "pages" of memory, which are "mapped" onto a small part of the CPU's available address space, in the area above 640K but below the 1MB boundary not already being used for devices. In order to use expanded memory, you need to load a device driver. This device driver handles all the dirty work of mapping in the RAM. It should have been supplied with your machine or the expanded memory board. This must be loaded if Vocal-Eyes is requested to use expanded memory. Refer to the manual which describes this device driver on how to install it. PC machines using the 80286, 80386 or 80486 can address far more than the 1MB storage of 8088 and 8086 processors. Therefore all RAM above 1MB is considered to be extended memory. Like expanded memory, you need a device driver which handles a lot of the dirty work. There is a file called HIMEM.SYS supplied on your Vocal-Eyes master diskette. This device driver must be loaded in your CONFIG.SYS file if Vocal-Eyes is requested to use extended memory. Assuming you have copied the device driver HIMEM.SYS into your speech directory, you should include the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file. DEVICE=\SPEECH\HIMEM.SYS Although we have supplied HIMEM.SYS, those using QEMM.SYS or a similar product have no need to use it. QEMM for example, does everything HIMEM.SYS does and more. You should not load both as the second one loaded would be aborted anyway. Expanded memory can run on any PC machine equipped with the ability. However, Extended memory cannot run on the 8088 or 8086 machines. Therefore if you are using a PC which has the 8088 or 8086, you cannot use the extended memory option for Vocal-Eyes. If you load Vocal-Eyes in either extended or expanded memory, it will require about 4K of RAM. This is quite a savings over using DOS RAM. If your machine has both extended and expanded, first try extended. It usually works faster and is more reliable then expanded. If you wish to load into expanded memory add the command /!ME to the command line. The following is an example of this: VE /!ME If Vocal-Eyes could actually load into expanded memory, it will speak and print: Loaded into expanded memory If you don't hear this message, either you did not specify the command properly, the device driver was not loaded or there is not enough expanded memory available. In any case, Vocal-Eyes will default back to DOS RAM. If you wish to load into extended memory add the command /!MX to the command line. The following is an example of this: VE /!MX If Vocal-Eyes could actually load into extended memory, it will speak and print: Loaded into extended memory If you don't hear this message, either you did not specify the command properly, the device driver was not loaded or the high memory area of the extended memory is not available. In any case, Vocal-Eyes will default back to DOS RAM. 2.7: SUMMARY In this section of your Vocal-Eyes user's guide we have installed all necessary files from your master diskette to your hard disk or startup device. We talked about the device drivers required for non-Sounding Board users and how to use the parameters for the driver. We showed you how to load Vocal-Eyes in DOS RAM and how to use batch files to help you during the loading process. Finally, we showed you how to load Vocal-Eyes into extended or expanded memory. Read on to learn how to use the many features of Vocal-Eyes.