About the number practice program (29 August 1991)
This program is one in a series of language-learning programs to practice one specific language skill. The computer is used as a patient and untiring companion to give you immediate and correct feedback. However, these programs do not presume to teach you the language skills.
This particular program deals with spoken numbers in French.
This program has three components: the user interface, the language-specific logic, and the language specific sound resources. (Of the three parts, the sounds take up almost all of the room). The program itself is designed with different languages in mind. I already have a Spanish version. I intend to make versions for other languages also.
Freeware policy
You are welcome to use this program and distribute it as you wish.
I ask only that :
Ñ you distribute it with this documentation file (Read Me Ñ Number Practice),
Ñ you do not distribute modified copies without contacting me first.
This program is not "public domain" -- I keep the copyright.
This program is not "shareware" -- I do not ask that you send me money.
This program is "free" -- I do not make any money from it. But I don't want to lose money on it either ! I wrote this for the fun of it and because it is useful to me. I hope that it is useful to you too.
The price you pay for a "free" program is :
Ñ lack of support. I would rather spend my spare time making the program easier to use.
Ñ lack of exhaustive testing. I have tried hard to make this program correct and bomb-proof, but I make no claim that I have found all of the problems. Let me know if you find any new ones. Possible bomb : may not work on older machines. See below.
Ñ lack of exhaustive polishing. It is incredible what a small percentage the "real" coding of a program is, and how many billion little details there are to deal with to make a professional quality program ! (And how little spare time there is).
I would appreciate feedback. If you have suggestions on how to improve the program, or if you find bugs, please let me know :
Norris Weimer
University Computing Systems
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H1
usernwhy@mts.ucs.ualberta.ca
System 6 or 7 required
This program runs on any Macintosh which is running System 6.0.6 or greater or System 7.0. The program does not yet check for the required hardware/software. Note that it may bomb if your system is older.
Don't run this program from a floppy disk or from a file-server.
The sound resources take an large amount of space, yet they must be quickly available when needed. There were two alternatives : either keep them in memory or get them from the disk when needed. The latter option seemed safer. If the disk is too slow, there will be pauses. If there is not enough memory, some or all of the sounds will be silent.
Things left to fix in the next version :
This version has some unfinished touches. There are still changes and additions I would like to make. But they will have to wait for the next version. The next version will take advantage of system 7 features, but it will also require system 7, so this is the final version which is system 6 compatible, unless there are some serious bugs that need fixing.
The program should :
Ñ have a custom icon.
Ñ put the preferences file in the system folder and look for it there. Currently, it acts like a document file rather than a preferences file, because the program doesn't use it until you tell it to. You can double-click on this file.
Ñ use the window location stored in the preferences file.
Ñ check that volume control is not set at zero
Ñ allow cut/copy/paste between applications.
Ñ make the cursor change shape when it passes over a text edit box.
Ñ eliminate pauses when run from a floppy disk, file server, or slow hard disk
Ñ check for proper hardware and system.
Ñ use asyncronous sound : erase the text which goes with the old number before saying the new number. This is especially noticable on large numbers.
Ñ use tab key to switch between input boxes.
Ñ not ignore disk-insert events.
Ñ highlight the buttons when "pushed", whether by mouse or by <return> key.
Ñ allow background tasks to have some time.
Ñ use the <clear> key
Ñ use System 7╒s Balloon Help.
Ñ give user choice of using commas or periods for number separators. Make it automatic for international systems. Same for the decimal "point".
Ñ be tested with : old machines, mac's with 2 screens, A/UX, VM ╔
Ñ have messages and other text in resources so that they can be customized for other languages without reprogramming.
Many teachers prefer that everything seen or heard by the student is in the target language. However, up until now it was more important to make the program work. Not all students using this program will know enough French yet anyway.
Other things I did not do : keep score, keep track of the user's troublesome numbers.
About how the program deals with the numbers :
You are expected to type in numbers such as 123. If the program wants something different from what you typed, it will give you a message. The explanations for these messages follow :
ÑNot a number
This means that there are characters other than numbers in your input.
You may use commas or blanks as separators in your numbers, but the program ignores them. It will not warn you if you put them in the wrong place. eg, '3 123 456' and 3,123,456' and '3123456' all represent the same number. Also, the program does not currently allow the European style of using points for separators and the comma for the decimal. Note: currently, if you type a tab, it won't be visible, but it will result in a 'not a number' message. If you get this message and it looks like a number, then maybe this is the cause. The program should not crash, no matter what you type in.
ÑNot an integer
The program only handles integers; no fractions or decimal places.
(eg, 1,2,3, ╔ not 1.1, 2.3, 3.4╔)
ÑUse positive numbers
The program only handles positive numbers, not negative numbers
(eg, 123, not -123)
ÑNumber too large
The largest possible number is 999,999 trillion (plus lots more 9's).
In scientific notation, this is 999999e+18. The program knows what do with numbers up to this point, but there are futher cautions╔
ÑToo many significant digits
Your number can only have up to 17 to 19 significant digits
For example, 12345678901234567897 is not too large, but it has 20 sig digits, while 99900000000000000000 only has three, even though it is larger.
ÑNote: Number rounded
This message has the same meaning as the previous one : there are too many significant digits. The difference is that this number will be used anyway. But note that the input and output numbers are NOT the same.
Regarding large numbers
You will notice that the regions for input and output of numbers have a fixed size which is not big enough to show the whole number if your number is enormous. This is on purpose. If the number does not fit in the window, it is probably beyond the ability of the program to handle it exactly. If the program handles it at all, it will handle a number which has been rounded. The last digits of the number will be different from what you typed, and they may not be zeros. It's better that you don't see these digits. The number may be rounded in base two, so it does not look anything like a round number in base 10 !
The program tries to warn you if your number is read differently than you intended, when the computer cannot handle all the digits you give it. There are two cases where this does not work well. The most serious is if you give it a number in scientific notation; then it does not make this check (eg, 1.001e8). If you type a number such as 3.0 it will give you a warning that it was rounded (to 3), which you can safely ignore.
About how the program deals with the sounds
The sound is digitized from the voice a person who is a native speaker of French in order to get the best quality. However, the numbers that the program produces are unnatural in the following way. The rhythm and emphasis are not always correct. For example, the 9 in 900 should be pronounced slightly differently than the 9 in 1009. Perhaps a future version of the program can correct these problems.
Thanks to Arnaud for the voice (France). Thanks to Bernard Rochet for recording and digitizing the voice and for being my phonetics and linguistic expert.
