# Text to speech - OS agnostic

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-to-speech-os-agnostic/181200>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [January 7, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-to-speech-os-agnostic/181200 "2010-01-07T08:50:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 8:50am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-to-speech-os-agnostic/181200/1 "2010-01-07T08:50:34Z")

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Hi folks,

I’m interesting in getting some feeling on how best to approach the  
matter of converting text (words) into speech.

I am currently coding on a XP platform in a Linux VM.  
I’d prefer the solution to work as well under Mac, Linux and Win.  
Or at least know that i have gems to use under each OS.

Question is which one?

await your thought’s and suggestions.

dave.

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**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 9:27am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-to-speech-os-agnostic/181200/2 "2010-01-07T09:27:47Z")

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On 2010-01-07 02:50:38 -0500, Dave L. said:

> await your thought’s and suggestions.
> 
> dave.

Festival TTS ssems to have pretty good support:  
[http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/download.html](http://www.cstr.ed.ac.uk/projects/festival/download.html)

And gem tie ins [http://festivaltts4r.rubyforge.org/](http://festivaltts4r.rubyforge.org/)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/p/8e7dd6/32.png) [@paradise](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/paradise)\
**Post date:** [January 7, 2010, 6:05pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/text-to-speech-os-agnostic/181200/3 "2010-01-07T18:05:57Z")

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Dave L. wrote:

> Hi folks,
> 
> I’m interesting in getting some feeling on how best to approach the  
> matter of converting text (words) into speech.
> 
> I am currently coding on a XP platform in a Linux VM.  
> I’d prefer the solution to work as well under Mac, Linux and Win.  
> Or at least know that i have gems to use under each OS.
> 
> Question is which one?

It might be best to write an abstraction layer that wraps the OS’s  
native TTS routines in a generic interface.

> await your thought’s and suggestions.
> 
> dave.

Best,  
–Â  
Marnen Laibow-Koser  
[http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org)  
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid