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From: kik@wjh12.harvard.edu (Ken Kreshtool)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Can HyperCard 2.0v2 talk without choking?
Message-ID: <590@wjh12.harvard.edu>
Date: 20 Mar 91 20:57:56 GMT
Reply-To: kik@wjh12.harvard.edu (Ken Kreshtool)
Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA
Lines: 34


I would like a stack to talk, but I am having trouble.  Trouble City is a IIsi,
System 6.0.7, 5 meg RAM, temporarily no INITs or CDEVs or viruses, HC 2.0v2.
Both an earlier version of Macintalk (1.2.1?) and the new Macintalk 2.0 give
the same trouble.  The trouble is as follows.

I have tried, one at a time, the XCMDs TALK, SAY (from the excellent but aging
HyperMacintalk stack) and SPEAK.  All three talk fairly well. 
But the first system sound that comes along later, e.g. a
scripted beep, flashes the menubar silently.  Uh-oh.  And the second system
sound locks the machine, although frantic clicking on the Multifinder icon
sometimes eventually frees it.  The second system sound can be from anywhere,
it seems: another scripted beep, or a click on the Volume slider in the Control
Panel, or even a SuperClock chime.  The TALK/SAY/SPEAK XCMD is not running
at the same time as any sound.  The same problem occurs (tested only with TALK)
on an SE/30.  Needless to say, none of this is ideal.

If anybody has anything that works, I'd be VERY grateful.

Interestingly, TALK (but not SAY or SPEAK) works with HC 2.0, the bundled
non-debugged version -- but only if a sound is still playing when the TALK
command is reached by the script.  (I discovered this by forgetting to _wait
until the sound is done_ one day.)  So now I always play Silence and then
immediately talk, and run the stack under 2.0.  But it seems kind of stupid to
ask people to dig out and run HC 2.0.  Does anyone have a better way?

Thanks, thanks, thanks in advance.  And Apple, how about making Macintalk into
a real, robust, non-crashy little gizmo.  Macintalk is terrific, even if it
does sound vaguely Scandinavian; please make it work.

Ken Kreshtool (kik@wjh12.harvard.edu)

By the way, this is my first attempt both at posting and at using our wildly
buggy editor, so if things are screwy, I apologize.