ASVP DES-file

A DES-file is the description file for the messages in the ASVP Module and the AMC-IP - AlphaCom Processor Board. The DES file is used as input to the AlphaVoC 2 and AlphaVoC tool chains. The DES file format is almost identical for use with the two toolchains.

A DES-file is divided into 4 sections:

• The PATH description
• The CONTENTS description
• The DESCRIPTIONs
  • The Function descriptions
  • The Subroutine descriptions
• The TABLE descriptions

Path

The PATH description is a list of the different directory paths AlphaVoC will use in searching for the WAV-files provided in the table descriptions. The user of AlphaVoC has to edit this section of the DES-file to tell the directory of his WAV-files. Different WAV-files may be stored in different directories.

• The only change in format from AlphaVoC to AlphaVoC 2 is that with AlphaVoC 2 the path is specified relative to the directory of the DES file.

Contents

The CONTENTS description is a list of the speech "functions" in the DESCRIPTION section. The numbers in the contents list is the SVP group of the SVP reference

Description

The function descriptions tell how the rest of the parameters in the signal from the AMC board are interpreted. These parameters are the SVP individ number of the speech message and numbers giving date, time of day, phone number etc. depending of which "group" the message belongs to.

Example:
The statement: < ENTRY absent_msg1 [I] > gives direct access into TABLE absent_msg1. [I] is the SVP individ parameter which is used as an index to pick the appropriate voice message from the table.

Some descriptions are "subroutines" used in the function description. A subroutine is used where the use of input parameters are, or may be in the future, common for several function descriptions. A subroutine is entered by the CALL statement in the function description. After running through the subroutine, the interpreter is returning to the statement after the CALL statement.

The "subroutines" are used to compose dates, times, numbers and and phone numbers. When porting to a new language, it may be necessary to adapt these subroutines to the linguistic rules of the language.

• ENTRY <table> [<index>] : Use files listed in TABLE <table> , at number <index>
• CALL <function> (1) : Call subroutine DESCRIPTION <function>.
• IF ( <condtition>) ... ENDIF  : Condition without else part...
• WHEN( <condtition>) ... ENDWHEN ELSE ... ENDELSE  : Condition with else part...

Table

The table section is a collection of tables listing all the WAV-files used in the voice messages. A specific table is reached by the statement: ENTRY <tablename> [index] index selects which WAV-file that is played back. There may be several WAVfiles listed under one index. In these cases the WAV-files are presented to the speech channel in the same sequence they are listed, that is all the WAV-files under the same index are put together into one coherent voice message. For indexes not used, "NONE" has to be entered.