I have a checkmate in one hundred seventeen moves.

[Dann Corbit]

And even this won't always work. You have to use completely different
algorithms for every language and every output string.

why would one need different algorithms for this? Strings are placed in a resource file (like is done for windows APIs) and one could modify the strings to the required language. I would say different algorithm may be required for speaking 1500 either as 'one thousand five hundred' or just 'fifteen hundred'.

Daniel

Get the number shar file from here for lots of ways to spell numbers:
http://homepages.cwi.nl/~dik/english/ftp.html

[krazyken]

Three more usages:
2) Voice synthesis output. Do you want to hear "Mate in twelve moves" or "Mate in one two moves"?

I just tried this on my Mac OS box, I had it read your post above with all the numbers up to 4611686018427387904. It turns out that it pronounces all the numbers correctly up to one million, and will pronounce the other numbers correctly if they are comma delimited like so: 4,611,686,018,427,387,904

[Teemu Pudas]

4611686018427387904
four quintillion six hundred eleven quadrillion six hundred eighty-six trillion eighteen billion four hundred twenty-seven million three hundred eighty-seven thousand nine hundred four

four point six one one six eight six oh one eight four two seven three eight seven nine oh four times ten to the eighteenth

[MattieShoes]

Haha, I was thinking "m117" would be my choice

[sje]

Haha, I was thinking "m117" would be my choice

Or hexadecimal: "m75". Saves a byte.

More seriously, those with a Unix system of some kind with audio output can use the "say" command:

Code: Select all

say I have a checkmate in one hundred seventeen moves

say I have a checkmate in 117 moves

Both might produce the same audio output. But to be sure for all numbers and all platforms, you'll need to use the first version.

On a Mac, the outputs are slightly different: the second version inserts an "and" between "hundred" and "seventeen". I suppose that this is an acceptable variant although I prefer the results of the first version.

Some experimentation with "say" shows several inconsistencies when handling four digit values that could be interpreted as year numbers, so an explicit number speller would be needed in those cases.