smarter_tts.py

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Script info

• Script name: smarter_tts.py
• Version: 1.6

• Requirements: speech-dispatcher (requires spd-say binary in PATH)

• Min WeeChat version:

• Script tags: tts, sound, audio, accessibility, speech

Description

A zero-latency, thread-safe Text-to-Speech integration using the system's speech-dispatcher.

Why this is needed (vs existing tts.py):
This script is a modern architectural alternative to the existing tts.py.

1. Threading vs Process Hook: Unlike tts.py which spawns a new process for every message (causing UI freezes on high load), this script uses a persistent background thread and a FIFO queue.
2. Standardization: It targets the Linux standard speech-dispatcher rather than hardcoding specific binary flags for espeak or festival.
3. Smart Logic: It includes "Burst Merging" (combining rapid messages from the same user) and "Nick Humanization" (cleaning up nicknames for phonetic pronunciation) which are not present in older scripts.

Key Features:

• Auto-Discovery: Automatically scans the system to find sound files for notifications on any distro (Fedora, Arch, Debian, etc).
• Focus Mode: Only reads the active buffer by default, but allows locking to specific channels via /listento.
• Background Alerts: Plays a sound and announces channel names for background highlights without reading private text.

Checklist (new script)

• Single commit, single file added
• Commit message: New script smarter_tts.py: Zero-latency TTS integration
• No similar script already exists
• Name: max 32 chars, only lower case letters, digits and underscores
• Unique name, does not already exist in repository
• No shebang on the first line
• Comment in script with name/pseudo, e-mail and license using SPDX tags (see Contributing guide)
• Only English in code/comments
• Pure WeeChat API used, no extra API
• Function hook_url, hook_process or hook_process_hashtable is used for any blocking call
  • (Note: Script uses standard python threading for the audio queue to ensure zero-latency continuity without blocking the main loop, utilizing hook_timer to safely update UI from the main thread).
• For Python script: works with Python 3 (Python 2 support is optional)
• Score 100 / 100 displayed by weechat-script-lint