say.md

How to Re-implement the say Command on Windows with PowerShell and a Batch File

If you're a Mac or Linux user, you might be familiar with the say command, which allows you to convert written text into spoken words. No such thing exists for Windows. Let's re-implement it on Windows using PowerShell and a batch file!

Using PowerShell

PowerShell is a powerful command-line tool that comes pre-installed with Windows. Using PowerShell allows us to load useful assemblies from within a simple script, and it's available on all Windows systems. (though it may be blocked by your Windows Admin)

Here's a PowerShell script that re-implements the say command:

[CmdletBinding()]
param (
  [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, Position=0)]
  [string]$Text
)

Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Speech

$synthesizer = New-Object -TypeName System.Speech.Synthesis.SpeechSynthesizer

$synthesizer.Speak($Text)

This script defines a parameter named Text that represents the text to be converted to speech. It then uses the System.Speech assembly to create a SpeechSynthesizer object and use its Speak() method to convert the text to speech.

To use this script as the say command, save it to a file named say.ps1 somewhere on your path. You can then run the command from PowerShell like this:

.\say.ps1 "Hello, world!"

This will convert the text "Hello, world!" to speech and play it back using the default system voice.

Using a Batch File

While PowerShell is a powerful tool, there may be times you'd rather run the command from cmd.exe. This batch file of course depends on the above Powershell script:

@echo off

setlocal

set SCRIPT_PATH=C:\Path\To\say.ps1

if "%~1"=="" (
  echo Usage: say "text to convert to speech"
  exit /b 1
)

powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -File "%SCRIPT_PATH%" %1

To use this batch file as the say command, save it to a file named say.bat somewhere on your %PATH%. Replace C:\Path\To\say.ps1 with the actual path to your PowerShell script. You can then run the command from cmd.exe like this:

say "Hello, world!"

Enjoy a decades-old Linux/Mac feature on your Windows machine!