 VoiceClock REXX Program v0.02      Chris Boyd
                                    email: cboyd@ksu.ksu.edu                
 
 VoiceClock/REXX v0.02 by Chris Boyd  August 26, 1996   OS/2 freeware 
  

Please, if you use this program, let me know that you use it, and
if you could, what you think about it.  Since it's freeware, I 
hope I'm not asking too much.  email Chris Boyd <cboyd@ksu.ksu.edu>
or catch me on IRC at #os/2, look for Soma0.

---------------------
WHAT IS THIS PROGRAM?
---------------------

VoiceClock/REXX is a OS/2 REXX program that will announce the current
time and date on your WAVEAUDIO device, such as a SoundBlaster, etc. 
You can type "VoiceClock" at the command line to hear just time time and
day once, or you can add command line switches to keep VoiceClock 
running in the background constantly and remind you of the time at
whatever intervals you choose.  Since this program is a REXX program, 
flexibility comes naturally, and you can include a hook to this 
program in many other places in OS/2.

----------------------------------------------
WHAT DO I NEED TO RUN VOICECLOCK SUCCESSFULLY?
----------------------------------------------

* A computer running OS/2 with REXX support installed
* Free space on an HPFS drive
* A WAVEAUDIO device, such as a Soundblaster, PAS16, etc

---------------------------------
HOW DO I INSTALL VOICECLOCK/REXX?
---------------------------------

Create a directory on any HPFS disk you want, call it 
anything you want.  I suggest something like "D:\VoiceClock".  
Unzip the ZIP file.  It will extract all the needed
files.  After that, you are ready.  

(If you are reading this, you're probably done already)

-----------------
WHAT DO I DO NOW?
-----------------

You can interact with VoiceClock, of course, from the
command line.  Type in "VoiceClock" and it will run
in SINGLE announce mode.  You will hear the time
and date, and it will quit.  To find out what else
you can do, type in "VoiceClock -?" and you will
see a list of command line switches.  You can
use up to 3 switches at once.

Switches:

 /Cx = CONTINUOUS announce mode

       This places VoiceClock in CONTINUOUS mode, which is
       where VoiceClock announces the time/date once and
       keeps running, waits for x minutes, and announces again.

       x = minutes between announcements
      
       set x = 0 to announce on the half hour and hour
       set x = Q to announce on quarter, half hour, and hour

       If you just put "/C", it will default to announcing
       on the half hour and hour.

       You must press CTRL-C to quit CONTINUOUS mode.

   /T = Announce TIME only
  
       Obviously, it only announces the TIME, leaving out
       the DATE.

   /D = Announce DATE only

       Same as above, but vice versa.

   /N = Disables screen output

       For those times you can't have VoiceClock making
       a bunch of screen noise.  :)

   /? = Displays help screen

       Duh.  :)

---------
NOW WHAT?
---------

Now you implement VoiceClock where ever you need it.
Look at the code.  Learn REXX.  Place hooks to VoiceClock
in places where it is handy and/or practical.  It's
freeware, have fun.

Oh, BTW, you can replace the WAV files included with
your own.  Just make sure the WAV files you make
are the same name as the ones you see now:

 01.WAV through 59.WAV   -  Used for minutes of the hour, and days
                            of the week

 O01.WAV through O09.WAV -  Used for minutes 01 through 09 "Oh-one" etc.

 The01 through The31.WAV -  Days of the month "The first" etc.

 Sunday.WAV through Saturday.WAV - Days of the week.

 January.WAV through December.WAV - The months.

 TheTimeIs.WAV -  Starts the time announcement ("The Time Is:")

 TodayDate.WAV -  Starts the date announcement ("The Date Is:")

 am.wav and pm.wav - as in "3 am" and "9 pm"

-----------------------------
WHAT'LL BE IN LATER VERSIONS?
-----------------------------

Well, I once was going to use rsynth, a text to speech
digitizer, but I found out rsynth is just too huge and
sounds too nasty to justify including in VoiceClock.  
Maybe some other time.  

Future versions will include the features UNIX people
find in cron.  You will be able to schedule
VoiceClock/REXX to automatically run any command/program
at a certain time.

Naturally, I'm open to suggestions.  :)

-------
HISTORY 
-------

 0.02   (Aug 26 1996) 

          * Decreased the size of ALL the default WAV files
            in VoiceClock/REXX.  This made the size of 
            the whole program shrink from 3.6 megs to
            about 600k at once!

          * Fixed the annoying "garble" after pressing
            CTRL-C to quit CONTINUOUS mode.

 0.01  (Aug 24 1996)

          * First public beta test, quick and short too.


-----------------------------------------------------------
COMMENTS, QUESTIONS, MOANS, WHINING, COMPLAINTS, THANK YOUS
-----------------------------------------------------------

Send 'em all to:  cboyd@ksu.ksu.edu

BTW, please write, I'd like to hear from you if you
actually use this program.

(hris Boyd   August 26, 1996