So called because in this article we show how to put together all the parts of a simple web service so that when you come to use the tools out there, that make things easier and quicker, you can work out what has gone wrong and how to fix it. Continue reading “The naked web service”
Web services the what and why
What is a web service?
There is a simple definition for a web service but before I get to that I want to set the scene.
Before the emergence of the internet, computers would connect with each other over point to point connections. Initially, the two ends of the communicating systems would need to be written on the same platform in the same technology. Continue reading “Web services the what and why”
Designing and Building JavaFX Text to Speech Tester
This is the last in the series about writing applications which convert text to speech. We started off the journey by introducing the final product, a Speech Tester JavaFX application.
It is this application that we are going to design and build here.
Continue reading “Designing and Building JavaFX Text to Speech Tester”
Making noise
Now that we have a small collection of voices to choose from, see our previous article, let us turn our attention to making some noise from our Java application.
Just to get us going we will select a voice and use it to play a quote. The quote we will use for now is “Believe in yourself. You are braver than you think, more talented than you know, and capable of more than you imagine.” The voice we will use is the 8-bit Kevin. Continue reading “Making noise”
Adding MBROLA speech to FreeTTS Java speech synthesiser
Welcome to the third in the series on adding speech to a Java application. In the previous post, we wrote a small application to list out all the voices available in our Java FreeTTS speech synthesiser.
In this article, we will take a look at increasing the number of voices available to us by adding voices from MBROLA. Continue reading “Adding MBROLA speech to FreeTTS Java speech synthesiser”
JavaFX and adding basic speech
In the last post we took a look at a small application to demonstrate making our program speak and the various voices and settings that can be used to alter the sound.
In this post, we are going to build a small proof of concept project to load the FreeTTS synthesiser and start to use it. Continue reading “JavaFX and adding basic speech”
Making your program speak
I was working on a project the other day and it had a requirement for speech. Based on some pre-agreed text, the application needed to play back the text to the user. Now, these days this sort of thing is common place. Alexa and Siri are well known services based on this sort of technology.
So, what if you want to convert text to speech how can you do this.
Roles in Software Development
There are many terms used within the software industry to describe roles that people perform. All of these roles contribute in some shape or form to produce and deliver software to a target audience.
Many of the terms used are arbitrarily assigned by organisations as they suit, and do not necessarily conform to any agreed to and understood definition. In fact, if you were to look these terms up in an attempt to define each you will find a varying array of explanations. Continue reading “Roles in Software Development”
What is a Good Developer?
I come across many articles that discuss what makes a good developer:
• What is a good developer?
• How to become a good developer?
• Things you must know to be a good developer? Continue reading “What is a Good Developer?”
Configure your application using a properties file
When I first started out in programming, I made the same mistake I now see countless people make when starting. I wrote code for me and that worked, and that was good enough for me. As time passed and the code I produced expanded and became more ambitious so my bad habits became more ingrained. I think it is something we all do; we all go through. It is not until we encounter an issue, a reason to change, that we appreciate the error of our ways. If we are fortunate we get an opportunity to work with other more worldly wise programmers who can help us adopt good habits; if not then we need hard lessons to alter our behaviour.
Continue reading “Configure your application using a properties file”