# Scope

## Goals

1. Synthesize speech with the MSTTS voices (Sam, Mary, Mike) on Linux.
2. Synthesize speech with the AT&T Flextalk 2.1 voices ("Keith Bell",
   "Kerry Watson") on Linux, through the same host.
3. Ship as a native Linux binary (Winelib first, pure-native later).
4. Keep the engine contract limited to what `speech.h` defines, so other
   SAPI4 engines can be added without host changes.
5. Text in, WAV out. Pitch and speed adjustable.

## Approach

- Phase 1 (current): Winelib host + Wine-provided runtime. Fastest path to
  working audio, and it doubles as the reference oracle for later work.
- Phase 2: replace Wine-provided parts with own shims one at a time
  (file I/O, threads, OLE2, window/message pump, finally MSVC EH/SEH).
- Phase 3: pure-native rehost of `msttssyn.dll`; no Wine libraries.

## Non-goals (for now)

- GUI, SAPI4 telephony (`spchtel.dll`), Voice Command (`vcmd`), Agent support.
- TruVoice voices (possible later; same L&H engine family).
- 64-bit build (the engines are 32-bit).
- Multi-platform audio (PipeWire/ALSA output comes after WAV works).