Note by @fastfinge

Andre Louis @FreakyFwoof@universeodon.com

3w

There will be people throwing things at their screen or braille display when I say this, but I have no idea what the difference is between IBMTTS and Eloquence. If there's a sonic difference, can't hear it. Never grew up with it, so I just don't get it.
School me, go on.

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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

3w

@FreakyFwoof If you’re talking about the NVDA addons, the IBMTTS addon usually uses the eloquence DLL files, so the sound is identical. The differences between the two addons are features and what comes included. If you mean the difference between Eloquence and IBMTTS/ViaVoice, Eloquence licensed there code to IBM. IBM went on to add some new features, and many new and exciting bugs. And also change the API for no particular reason. And created a new dictionary format that’s neither better or worse, just different for no explicable reason. Also, the IBMTTS dll files can be had from IBM’s FTP site. The Eloquence dlls have to be ripped out of commercial software. Also, Apple and Nokia had completely different eloquence versions that are 99 percent the same, but each have subtle differences. And as far as I can tell, all of the voice and dictionary rules were created in a custom programming language, and the source code for the rules, and the compiler that compiles them, is almost certainly lost. That’s why Apple, for example, includes the community dictionary rather than just updating eloquence to fix the bugs. Because eloquence itself can never be changed or updated anymore. When it comes to NVDA: Eloquence64 has much better indexing, but we only support the bundled DLL files. IBMTTS supports every eloquence version ever released, has parts written in rust, and less accurate indexing. But in exchange Chinese support works better, and it gets around a few Unicode and localization bugs.

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Andre Louis @FreakyFwoof@universeodon.com

3w

@fastfinge OK that was very comprehensive and intriguing. Thanks.

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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

3w

@FreakyFwoof For my sins I maintain eloquence64, so I have to know more about this crap than I would really like to. The code for both addons is a terrible mess. But eloquence64 is…slightly better, mostly. Just because it’s trying to do far less. But when you have to work around libraries that haven’t been updated since 2003 or so, and can never be fixed, things are always going to be a mess.

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D.Hamlin.Music @dhamlinmusic@dragonscave.space

3w

@fastfinge @FreakyFwoof You just summarized like 90% of government computer systems…

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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

3w

@dhamlinmusic @FreakyFwoof Some of Dr. Susan’s research work was actually funded by The National Science Foundation and DARPA. So yes, the US government does have tentacles in eloquence.

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D.Hamlin.Music @dhamlinmusic@dragonscave.space

3w

@fastfinge @FreakyFwoof I mean when has something like this not been funded by DARPA…

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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

3w

@dhamlinmusic @FreakyFwoof That’s why the British Eloquence voice sounds so bad. It was, in fact, the US governments opening attack on Britain to provoke another war. Obviously.

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D.Hamlin.Music @dhamlinmusic@dragonscave.space

3w

@fastfinge @FreakyFwoof Assuming the Russian voice is actually mind control tech.

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🇨🇦Samuel Proulx🇨🇦 @fastfinge@interfree.ca

3w

@dhamlinmusic @FreakyFwoof LOL you think it has a Russian voice? Nope! This was the 90’s. As far as developers were concerned, only the English alphabet existed. When support for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean was added, it worked by first converting everything into the English alphabet. Then reading it that way.

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