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FRANK EDITOR README
by Vander Nunes, Vitria-ES/Brazil, vrnunes@hotmail.com
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WHAT IS FRANK

That's a MSX voice recorder/player I coded back into 1986, called FRANK EDITOR.
I used nothing more than a simple hexa editor to write it. Frank was coded in
100% ASM using hexa codes by hand.


HOW TO START

load "frank.bas",r
(this will start the BIN files automatically)


HOW IT WORKS

After recording all desired voice fragments, Frank saves the voice and adds a
new command to MSX-BASIC (command SAY) that can play back independently voices
previsously recorded by the program. With this new command, the developer can
make his/her program speak with ease, without the editor interface. The voices
are simply loaded together with the user's program, and all the user needs is
to use SAY(0), SAY(1), or whatever the desired voice index is.

To let your program speak, you can do something like:

print "Hello World" : say(1)

The above line print a message and speak the voice number one.
You can have any number of voice fragments you want (limited by memory).

for x=0 to 10
  say(x)
next x

The above code fragment speaks the voices from index 0 to index 10.


WHY I WROTE IT

This program was used by myself to develop a text-to-speech app called MAX.
MAX was so cool (it was '87!), I can't believe I lost it. MAX was capable of
speaking near to correct portuguese, with reasonable quality. I really can't
believe I lost it entirely. Shit. Ah, I have nothing with the "STOP INFORMATICA",
it was a small company from Rio de Janeiro who was interested in distributing
the editor. Unfortunately, STOP closed it's doors before starting distribution.


HOW TO USE IT

I don't think anyone will really use this program anymore. I don't remember
exactly how to use it (sic!), but it was very easy to record and save voice
fragments with it. The best I can say is that at the end you have the SAY
command inside your own program, without any dependence of the editor, and
this command can play back all your recorded voices.

One cool thing about it is the "Adjust-Buffer" option. You use the arrow keys
to cut out undesired parts of the buffer, while you hear the voice, front to back
and back to front (I knew about only one other similar app, and it didn't do that!).

When saving, the editor will put a command on the screen. You need to put the
cursor above it and press ENTER to effectively save the voice file. Don't forget
to write down the command parameters, because to load it back to memory again
you'll need to repeat that parameters.

Hmmm... go figure out how to use it if you really want to. :)


LAST WORDS

This program is free to use for anything, but you must keep all files in the original
form. Enjoy this killer free app. :)


Vander
