AgentSay (Microsoft Agent CLI)

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Current Version = 1.0.0

AgentSay is a command-line application that makes any installed Microsoft Agent character say a phrase. AgentSay has two main uses:

Documentation Table of Contents

Prerequisites

This program depends on several other packages - you may or may not need to install these to use AgentSay. (When in doubt, keep installing until AgentSay works!)

Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 - This is probably already installed on your system if you are using Windows XP or 2003. Just the runtime version is required.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/downloads/updates

Microsoft Agent 2.0 - This is probably already installed on your system if you are using Windows 2000, XP or 2003.
http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/agent2/MSagent.exe

Microsoft Speech API 4.0 ("SAPI40") - This may or may not already be installed on your system (probably not if you are running Windows XP).
http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/sapi/spchapi.exe

Microsoft Text-To-Speech - This may or may not already be installed on your system (probably not if you are running Windows XP).
http://activex.microsoft.com/activex/controls/agent2/tv_enua.exe

Download

AgentSay100.zip (less than 50 KB)

Installation

Unpack the AgentSay*.zip file into a folder on your hard drive. If you would like to be able to run AgentSay from any command prompt, you will either need to add it to your PATH or copy all included files into a folder that is already in your PATH.

For example, as part of setting up any computer I usually edit my system PATH to include a directory of utilities called "D:\OSOmissions". This allows my to run any utility in this directory from anywhere when I am using a command prompt. So...I simply need to unpack all the files from my "AgentSay100.zip" file into my "D:\OSOmissions" folder.

Usage

Usage: AgentSay.exe [Name_of_agent] [Phrase_to_say]
  ...where [Name_of_agent] is "Peedy", "Merlin", etc.
  ...and [Phrase to say] is whatever the agent should say.
  Double-quotes (") are NOT required around either parameter.

Examples

C:\>AgentSay Merlin Hello world!

C:\>AgentSay Peedy I want a cracker.

C:\>AgentSay Robby  Why did the chicken cross the road?  Give up?  To get t
o the other side!  Ha ha ha ha ha.

C:\>AgentSay FakeName You can't say that.
AgentSay could not load a Microsoft Agent character named 'FakeName'.
Are you sure 'FakeName' has been installed on this computer?

C:\>AgentSay -help
AgentSay v1.0.0 - December 29, 2005
  Function:  Command-line utility to make Microsoft Agents speak. ...

License

This software, and all accompanying files, data and materials, are distributed "AS IS" and with no warranties of any kind, whether express or implied.

History

Many years ago I was a heavy Commodore Amiga enthusiast. One of my favorite Amiga OS applications was the command-line text-to-speech utility. For years I missed the a command-line text-to-speed utility for the Windows platform; finally I wrote my own.

I wrote the first version of "AgentSay" in VB.NET 1.0 in early 2003. I rewrote under C#.NET 1.1 in late 2005. The feature set has remained the same since it was first developed but error handling and help have improved.

More Agents

Although Microsoft has largely stopped flogging Agents, it still makes available its original four (Merlin, Peedy, Robby and Genie). Many other people have created dozens of other agents over the year too. Some sites where agents can be obtained are listed below.