[gnuspeech-contact] Re: GNUstep & gnuspeech

[Marcelo Matuda]

Hi David,

On Thu, Mar 10, 2011 at 10:00 PM, David Hill <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi Marcelo,
>
> This is by way of a few comments on my initial experiences with "gnuspeech" 
> under GNUstep.
>
> I have done some more testing on the GNUstep version of gnuspeech 
> "Synthesizer". There are more problems than I first thought, including the 
> fact I can even crash the App by simply choosing a radio button at times (I 
> found more than one example). I need to look at this carefully and sort out 
> the problems. However, much of what was implemented for OS X works on the 
> GNUstep version, the most notable omission being the spectrograph display for 
> speech (but it display correctly for the test waveform input). The spectral 
> cross-section in the analysis window seems to work as it is supposed to. Of 
> course there are stubs for some of the secondary graphs which I have to flesh 
> out in both versions. The "About" panel shows up without its content, but the 
> content is available in its .pdf file. Perhaps GNUstep doesn't handle .pdf. I 
> have to get more thoroughly into testing and start looking at it in the 
> development environment.
>
> Is there a good guide to working with the GNUstep IDE? (especially porting 
> from Max OS X)

The IDE? Project Center? I didn't use it. I used Eclipse, but you may
use any text editor, like gedit.

For the GUI editor (Gorm), there is a manual:
http://www.gnustep.org/resources/documentation/Developer/Gui/ProgrammingManual/AppKit_toc.html

Gorm and Project Center are in Debian's repository.

> When I  "openapp Monet" command it prints out a message near the start:
>
> Monet [2431 ] Error: No audio output device is available.
> Monet [2431] API OSS
>
> Do I need to install OSS, even though I did install portaudio19-dev. I can 
> synthesize to a file, and then listen to it using the Media player but cannot 
> produce the output directly. Perhaps this is why. On subsequent invocations, 
> the message did not appear.

Try installing the package oss_compat (there is a note at the end of
INSTALL.GNUstep).

> Later, just after ", [2431] filename: 
> /home/david/Library/Application/Support/GnuSpeech/pronunciations, db: 
> 0x44e9df0, has been loaded: 1" it outputs:
>
> Monet [2431] File NSData.m: 282. In readContentsOfFile read of file 
> (/home/david) contents failed -t
> Monet [2431] Error: Failed to load file (nil) (nil)
>
> but it didn't seem to stop anything working.

There are many warnings and errors in the log.

> When synthesizing the message:
>
> Monet [3537] NSNumberFormatter-getObjectValue:forString ... not fully 
> implemented
>
> appeared -- presumably explaining the failure to output numbers on the 
> display properly (many appear as "NaN")
>
> Some font "not found" messages are output .
>
> PreMo seems to work just fine using openapp, but a curious fact: I can fire 
> up "Synthesizer" by double-clicking the App icon but I cannot do that with 
> "Monet" or "PreMo".

Yes, this is strange. I don't know if we still need to use openapp.

> I am impressed by how much of the project is ported and working. I am keen to 
> get things to a state, as soon as possible, where I feel comfortable with a 
> first official release, even if it is alpha or beta. Help anyone? Comments 
> anyone?

What I have tested is the sequence:
load diphones.mxml --> set intonation parameters --> enter text --> synthesize

The modification of other parameters may or may not work.

> Warm regards and thanks for any feedback.
>
> david

Regards,
Marcelo