Hello all,

Great news for all NatLink users, including Vocola, Unimacro, Dragonfly and possibly other packages that are based upon this great dat addon that Joel Gould originally wrote in 1999.

With NatLink, a user command system for Dragon/NatSpeak can be built that is written in Python.

Up to Dragon 14, this package worked, but with the introduction of Dragon DPI 15, something was broken.

What happened in the background is unknown to me, but I am very happy that Rudiger Wilke now has the information to fix the NatLink code for Dragon 15.

Currently Rudiger and I are testing things, and we have to solve a few minor problems.

Hopefully I can release NatLink/Vocola/Unimacro for DPI 15 within a week.

Greetings, Quintijn

(Note Quintijn 18/1: see corrections Rudiger below. The tests are running succesful, I aim to release NatLink for Dragon 15 before January 23).

Wow, that's great news! Hopefully I can start playing around with Vocola again soon.

Michael

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Dragon Professional 16 + Speech Productivity + KnowBrainer
Win 11 – 64-bit, i9, 64GB RAM
Logitech webcam mic 

 

 

Hello Quintijn,

Thanks for publishing the great news about NatLink for DPI/DPG 15 being fixed finally here. However, there's a bit of misinformation in your message which may even be misleading if it wasn't corrected, so, as you already agreed to it, let me try and put it right.

First off, the NatLink fix has nothing to do whatsoever with any update to DPI or DPG 15, whichever that will be. I have also heard rumours going around about the next update being 15.2, and I wouldn't take it for granted. But regardless of what update it will be actually, it won't cover the fix because the initial problem lies somewhere else.

The reason for NatLink not functioning any longer in DPI 15 was in a change of the internal Dragon code, where a particular interface had been amended, as I had surmised all along and as it turned out now. Therefore, the problem couldn't be resolved on the NatLink side either without knowing what the particular change actually was.

So after ascertaining the coding issues, a number of other factors were also involved which I won't go into now. It couldn't have been resolved however if it weren't for the co-operative efforts from other parties, finally leading to the developers who provided the missing piece of information.

So let me take this opportunity to say a huge thanks to Lindsay at PCByVoice for establishing the contact and facilitating Nuance development's continued support of the NatLink project and the senior developers at Nuance development who continue to support Joel's works, they know who they are.

Everyone out there using NatLink should know that you all owe them for this, and you should never forget this, and some of you out there better think twice before blaming Nuance for not playing along the next time.

Rüdiger Wilke


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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

Wow! Thank you so much everyone for your fantastic work on this. And it's really good to know that senior developers at Nuance themselves helped out with this. I won't forget it.

It's funny really, I had just given up on Natlink ever working again and was starting to set up a system for programming by voice based on DVC commands. Given that Nuance was involved in getting Natlink working with Dragon 15, perhaps I should reconsider my decision to not use Vocola or Dragonfly.

+1 for Yay, it's working for me in DPG15.1!

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PG

Remember folks, my comments and this forum are for entertainment value only, please, no wagering or other reliance on the contents herein.  I permit no commercial use of my ideas (whether expressions or embodiments) without my written consent.

Thanks, Phil, for confirming this. Keep in mind that what I gave you is just the preview, so to speak, although it should have the entire functionality. Right now, we are in the process of doing a few more finishing touches, and hopefully it will be released to the public sometime around this weekend.



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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

Hard to put into words how glad I am to read this. My sincere thanks to everyone out there who has worked to make the fix possible.

Here's a link you can use to donate directly to help support this work: http://qh.antenna.nl/unimacro/aboutunimacro/donation/index.html

(At least, I think that's the best way to support financially -- please correct me if I'm wrong.)

You are welcome, and thank you for the kind words, haughki.

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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

I'm also having trouble finding a way to express my gratitude. In a small way I can express my support through donating. My life would be a different place without NatLink! Thank you, R. Wilke

You are welcome also, and also thank you for the kind words, Aaron.

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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

Alright folks, so if anyone out there is interested in doing some preliminary testing, I'll be happy to provide you with the new PYD (which is Python speak for DLL in the normal world) individually.

All it takes is to have Python 2.7 and a working NatLink installer, and then you can replace the PYD manually. I assume that you understand how to do this, or else I will create a boilerplate text describing it.

 

Also, do note that the new PYD will work only with DPI/DPG 15 and is not backwards compatible with DPI 14, DNS 13,...

Please contact me through my website referred to in my signature below, and I will get back to you via email.

RW

 

UPDATE:

 

Please note stressing working NatLink installer, which also includes the configuration.

 

I also need to know whether the NatLink version is the current "uniform" (personally, I wasn't aware that it has been already published, but you learn something new every day) or anything prior to this, as it will involve a different version of the PYD.

 

If you already have "uniform", and if it works for you (for me it doesn't), don't bother contacting me, as you will have the new PYD already.

 

But if you have anything NatLink prior to uniform in use, I will give you a PYD to go along with it.

 

(This editor sucks no end.)

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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

LATEST UPDATE:

I hear that Quintijn is back on it and that he will proceed fixing the new natlink "uniform" installer (did not work for me and a few others from what I heard).

So I suggest taking down this "prelimary testing phase" initiated here.

Thanks for everyone's interest in the meantime.

RW


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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

R. Wilke, thank you for providing the natlink_2.7_Ver15 (pre-uniform).pyd file for testing.

With NatLink uniform nor tango I couldn’t get Configure Natlink via GUI or commandline to run. However NatLink version: 4.1 romeo the GUI and commandline function as expected.

Renaming natlink_2.7_Ver15 (pre-uniform).pyd to to natlink_2.7_Ver15.pyd then placing it in  "...NatLink\MacroSystem\core\PYD"

NatLink Output

---

 UnimacroDirectory: C:\NatLink\Unimacro
getLanguage: Warning, no model specification string for key 2 1 found in "Base Acoustic" of inifile: C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\Users\Main\current\acoustic.ini
You probably got the wrong encoding of the file, probably utf-8-BOM.
Please try to change the encoding to utf-8.
no shiftKey code provided for language: zzz, take empty string.
setting shiftkey to:  (language: zzz)


start of natlinkstartup
getLanguage: Warning, no model specification string for key 2 1 found in "Base Acoustic" of inifile: C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\Users\Main\current\acoustic.ini
You probably got the wrong encoding of the file, probably utf-8-BOM.
Please try to change the encoding to utf-8.
getLanguage: Warning, no model specification string for key 2 1 found in "Base Acoustic" of inifile: C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\Users\Main\current\acoustic.ini
You probably got the wrong encoding of the file, probably utf-8-BOM.
Please try to change the encoding to utf-8.
 
Vocola Warning: no language "zzz" translations for the built-in Vocola
commands (e.g., commands to load voice commands) are currently
available; consider helping translate them -- inquire on
https://www.knowbrainer.com/forums/forum/categories.cfm?catid=25.  For
now the English versions, like "Edit Commands" and "Edit Global
Commands" are activated.

Vocola not active
natlinkmain started from C:\NatLink\NatLink\MacroSystem\core:
  NatLink version: 4.1romeo
  DNS version: 15
  Python version: 27
  Windows Version: 8or10

----------------------------------------

---

As the error states acoustic.ini utf-8-BOM. C:\ProgramData\Nuance\NaturallySpeaking15\Users\Main\current\acoustic.ini

I edited the encoding of acoustic.ini from utf-8-BOM to utf-8 using Visual Studio Code. In VS Code look at the lower right corner to change encoding schemes. Then I rebooted the computer.

NatLink status window looks exemplary

---

UnimacroDirectory: C:\NatLink\Unimacro
setting shiftkey to: {shift} (language: enx)
start of natlinkstartup
Vocola not active
natlinkmain started from C:\NatLink\NatLink\MacroSystem\core:
  NatLink version: 4.1romeo
  DNS version: 15
  Python version: 27
  Windows Version: 8or10

----------------------------------------

---

As I have time I will begin to test functionality and report back here with my findings.

Thanks, Aaron, for reporting back. This is very interesting and useful indeed. In fact, you shouldn't have to worry about the messages referred to above much longer. Because of the problems which Quintijn had in retrieving the user language (and the problems caused for the users therein) I added a few enhancements to the source code, so as to get the information through the C++ API rather than via awkward Python (crawling over INI files, which is prone to errors, whereas, reading INI files through the Win32 API is just a cake also, and I have no idea why it isn't in Python, but don't care to know).

However, reading the information which is passed to the Python module now is only catered for in the recent "uniform" installer, and since this one didn't work for me the same as it doesn't work for you obviously, I gave you a version of the PYD which supports DPI 15 on the one hand, but is also compatible with pre-uniform natlink installers on the other.

Basically, if you get it running, just go ahead and check out the functionality, and don't worry about BOM stuff anymore. Hopefully, Quintijn will get it fixed soon.

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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

NatLink version: 4.1 romeo stopped working yesterday. Natlink seems to of lost registration with Dragon NaturallySpeaking. As evidenced below.

I first attempt was to try to reregister via GUI. In addition, I've tried downgrading and upgrading NatLink. The "Configure Natlink via GUI" it's as michaelbeijer describes persists. I've tried deleting and reinstalling Python and so on. Two things I have not tried is to reformat the PC or reinstall Dragon both of which I'm reluctant to do.

 

 

At any event, don't. Going to such extremes won't help, as the problem is not with your PC, and not with Dragon either. It is with the NatLink installer.

 

For me, the last working (somehow) NatLink installer was "Quebec", but this is just my take on it, and I am not a real user of NatLink anyhow, all I do is to provide the API, so to speak. (And I am happy with it.)

 

Maybe it is time to sort it all out and start from scratch, as far as the installer and the configuration one might ask.

 

 

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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

Like Aaron, I couldn't get "Configure Natlink via GUI" or "Configure Natlink via commandline" to run, even though I followed all the instructions (install Python 2.7, then natlink installer, etc.).

 

Everything seems to install fine, but clicking on "Configure Natlink via GUI" or clicking on "Configure Natlink via commandline" briefly opens a terminal window, on which some stuff happens, and then it quickly shuts again. Not sure how to proceed.

Michael

-------------------------

Dragon Professional 16 + Speech Productivity + KnowBrainer
Win 11 – 64-bit, i9, 64GB RAM
Logitech webcam mic 

 

 

Please leave this thread and tell on the thread about release 4.1uniform-3 if you still have this problem.

If so, please try to run "natlinkconfigfunctions.py" from (C:\natlink)\natlink\confignatlinkvocolaunimacro. The error is then probably there.

Thanks for your hard work. As per your advice, it works!

Just a side note for those that might encounter the "Configure Natlink via GUI" issue refer to the post above. It's a workaround without the GUI interface.

As of today, reckoner confirmed that the overall functionality is back again, and that's good enough for me to leave the project now. Go on making the best of it.



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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

Not that I'm in a position to do a whole lot with it, but I was curious if the latest PYD source code is going to be released. From what I understand of the various licenses, you're under absolutely zero obligation to release it. I'm just curious.

Eventually, I presume, the new source code will be published, just like the source code has always been published, as a part of Joel Gould's legacy, but not now.


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The New Game in Town: DragonConnect

I'm glad to hear it! I figured it was just a matter of time. I'm hopeful that someday someone with as much spare time, but more insight and skill than I have will update it for use with Python 3, and possibly 64-bit.

After we have a stable release, at last, which probably takes another month, we can investigate Python 3 possibilities. About possibilities of 64-bit (Python?), and advantages of that, I do not know much at this moment.

I'd like to thank everyone who worked hard on getting Natlink to work with DPI15, you guys are awesome! There is not enough words to express my gratitude, and I believe many other Natlink users feels this way.

I'd throw you all a party, but since we all live in different countries I think it wouldn't be much of a success!

-------------------------

Windows 10, Office 2013, DNS 13 Pro French (& English), intel i7-4790, RAM 16GB, SSD 240 GB for programs and OS, data files stored elsewhere, VXI headset with integrated soundcard.

They do accept donations.
http://qh.antenna.nl/unimacro/aboutunimacro/donation/index.html

It's my first day coding by voice today, so sorry if I'm doing something obvious wrong. But does this post mean that Vocola 3 should work with dragon now? And in general, is vocola 3 "better" than vocola 2 or is it just a matter of dragon vs WSR? (I've purchased dragon but I could try with WSR again if it's worth it for vocola 3).

If not, does anyone know how I would translate this vocola 3 function to vocola 2? http://vocola.net/v3/FunctionLibrary/html/M_Library_String_ToCamelCaseWord.htm

I've got the clipboard extension but I can't find the String extension that the command on the link seems to reference, and I'm not sure it's supposed to work on vocola 2 even if I did.

Hello Adam, no Vocola 2 remains Vocola 2. The functionality is identical as far as I know. But I am not sure this function is not in the standard release of Vocola 2.

You can also turn to Unimacro, just switch on in the config GUI and be sure _general.py is in the Unimacro directory. Then see https://qh.antenna.nl/unimacro/grammars/globalgrammars/general/index.html

Good luck,

Quintijn

 

Hi Quinttijn - thank you so much for the quick reply. Unimacro was exactly what I needed. And I will still with vocola 2 then, thanks. I'm off and running now! Cheers.

There's a link to all extensions you need over here

http://vocola.net/v2/Extensions.asp
here's the direct link
http://vocola.net/unofficial/extensions.html
the following is also useful
http://vocola.net/unofficial/commands_for_Win32Pad.html

http://vocola.net/programming-by-voice-FAQ.html