IMPORTANT NOTE!!!
OUTDATED WEBSITE!!!

This website is no longer being updated! To visit this page on my current website, please use the following link:
   http://thiswayoflife.org/jtalk/jtalk2.html
Please update any links you have to this site.

JTalk Version 2

JTalk Version 2 is currently in the very early stages of development. There is no code or executable to be downloaded, and it will be a long time before it can replace the current "stable" version of JTalk in either capability or stability. If you are looking for the JTalk software, visit the main JTalk page instead of this page.

Why Start Over?

The orignal version of JTalk grew into something that I never envisioned. I've learned a lot developing it, and wished for a "clean slate" in which to do things right, so that it would be easier to add new functionality and customizations to the JTalk software. Simply put, the current codebase would not allow that.

Technical Details

There are a lot of technical details that aren't yet known. What is known right now is that JTalk 2 will be written in C#, using the .NET 2.0 Framework. This means that JTalk 2 will not support any version of Windows prior to Windows 2000, unlike the current version which, with some significant work, can work on Windows 98. It's also likely that support for non-SAPI5 speech engines will be dropped, and that only up-to-date Windows XP machines will be supported without the need for downloading additional software.

Open Source

JTalk Version 2 will be an open source project. When there is a significant amount of code, that compiles into something that pretends to almost be useful, the code will be released on this site.

Helping - Developers

First, please read A Warning to Developers about how speech systems are more than a technical problem.

Then, if you are still interested, if you are a .NET developer, and if you want to help with a project like this, you are welcome to help! Please let me know you want to help (send email to [email protected]), so I can keep you informed and let you know when the project is at a stage where enough of the "framework" is written that another developer will be able to usefully contribute.

A very useful addition to JTalk, if you can't wait until later to help, would be a new TextBox control that inherits from the Framework TextBox control, but provides a type-as-you-go spell-check feature that works similar to MS Word's type-as-you-go spell-check, which underlines misspelled words with a red wavy line.

If you are a developer, but don't have access to the expensive Microsoft development tools, you may want to visit the Visual Studio Express Edition website. Microsoft is giving away - free - a stripped-down version of the Visual Studio system. The C# Express Edition will allow you to work on JTalk Version 2's code, once that code is released.

Helping - Others

Can't write software? That's okay! There will be lots of need for other types of help, such as writing documentation and help files, designing sample communication "panels" (similar to the current JTalk "pages"), testing, supporting other users, maintaining the JTalk 2 website, etc. If you'd like to help with any of these things, or know something else you can contribute let me know!

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