TALKING COMMUNITY SIGNS version 2.0 -- public domain FREEWARE
by Bill Straub, 1/1997

Required hardware:
IBM PC AT - 286 or equivalent or better
CGA, EGA, or VGA adapter and monitor
(or Hercules compatible with SIMCGA or similar CGA emulator program)

Recommended:
Sound Blaster or compatible so you can hear the signs and letters.

Community Signs was written in Borland Turbo C++ 3.0 for my students who are 
adults with developmental disabilities.  Some of them are just getting 
used to using the keyboard so I made it a "keyboard banger" program
with the option of having students type in the numbers and letters to
spell the signs.  The program could also be fun for people learning literacy 
skills or for young children.

If you can't hear the sounds then you will need to increase the loudness
of your sound card.  This may be accomplished in one of two ways:  (1) by 
moving a dial on the back of your computer while the program is running, or 
(2)  on newer sound cards by exiting the program and running a program which
came with your sound card to set the volume.  See the documentation which
came with your sound card.

If the sound becomes garbled then exit the program and restart it -- 
occasionally the memory used for the sound files may become corrupted.
On older 286 systems with slow hard disks you may have garbled sound.  The 
solution appears to be to run a full defrag (not just files).  Running the 
program on a faster machine with a faster hard drive also helps eliminate 
the garbled sound.  

The program automatically starts out at level 3 (spell the words by typing 
each individual letter on the keyboard).  You can change this when you start 
the program by typing: 
	C_SIGN20 x  [where x = the level you want, then press Enter]

For example, typing C_SIGN20 1, starts the program out on level 1 (keybanger 
mode).  C_SIGN20 2 begins the program using level 2 (keybanger mode, but 
hearing each off the letters for the sign).

Pressing Page Down cycles through the signs alphabetically and Page Up cycles 
in reverse.

You can print out the signs on a printer by using the Print Screen key 
on the keyboard if you have already run the DOS graphics program.  
For example, before running Community Signs I enter the following at the 
DOS prompt:
	CD\DOS  [press Enter]
	GRAPHICS  [press Enter]

Then I run the Community Signs program. When I see the sign I want
to print displayed on the screen I turn my Epson dot matrix printer on-line 
and then press the Print Screen button on the computer keyboard.

For other types of printers look up the MS-DOS graphics command in the manual 
so it will print correctly.  Note that versions of DOS prior to version 5.0 
(I think) will only print CGA but not EGA or VGA graphics.  If you can't 
print and you have an EGA or VGA monitor you can either set your monitor 
to CGA mode before running, use a third party graphics print program, or 
you can upgrade your DOS version.  Unfortunately the signs will not print
in color on a color inkjet printer without some additional software.

Talking Community Signs version 2.0 runs under MS-Windows 3.x but will not 
run in a DOS window.  I suggest you exit to DOS or else the voice files will 
play very very slowly.  It will run in DOS under Windows 95, but the sound 
files don't play (at least on my SoundBlaster 16).

This program is FREEWARE because I would like people to use it even though
they may not have money for shareware.  I would like to see more inexpensive
programs designed for adults with developmental disablities and for people
learning basic literacy skills.  The graphics may be kind of rough, but I
wanted it to run on old CGA monitors and computers where I teach.

This version talks using a soundblaster or compatible card.  If your
sound card is not 100% compatible then the program may not work.  You can
change the wav files to change what the signs say.  If you can't hear the
sounds you may need to turn the volume of your sound card up -- this may be
done with a dial on the back of the computer, or on some cards, by running
a program to set the volume BEFORE you run Community Signs.

*****************************************************************************
Legal stuff (I dislike this, but it needs to be said):
The author makes no claims as to the suitability of this software for any 
specific purpose, nor will the author be responsible for any damage the 
program may cause, no matter the cause or fault.

MS, MS-DOS and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.  
IBM is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation.  
Epson is a registered trademark of Seiko Epson Corporation.  Sound Blaster is 
trademark of Creative Technology Ltd.
*****************************************************************************

If you have comments or suggestions about this program, please contact me:

Bill Straub
e-mail:  hope@northcoast.com
phone:   (707) 822-6151