Word Clock

[FellippeHeitor]

Here's a Word Clock programmed using InForm.

Unpack the contents of the zip below into your QB64 folder (or to the folder of your choice provided the file falcon.h is placed in the QB64 folder), load WordClock.bas into the IDE and hit F5 to compile and run.

The zip contains the minimum set of library files that must be distributed alongside an InForm-based project. To get InForm plus the form designer, head to qb64.org/inform

[SMcNeill]

O’CLOCK isn’t highlighted in the screenshot.

[FellippeHeitor]

Cause 13 minutes had already passed since one o'clock :-)

This is based on this: https://www.reddit.com/r/mildlyinteresting/comments/a4pvms/this_clock_i_found_at_a_friends_party/ (more at

)

[Pete]

I made one in SCREEN 0 years ago. It was based on the Micky Mouse watch, popular in the 1960's. At 12:30 it would read...

It's half past the mouse's ASCII.

Cool. Ever thought of hooking it up with text to speech?

Pete

[Qwerkey]

O’CLOCK isn’t highlighted in the screenshot.

Fellippe's wording is quite correct, I think.  "It is one o'clock"; "It is ten (minutes) past one".

Is this different in the US?

[SMcNeill]

O’CLOCK isn’t highlighted in the screenshot.

Fellippe's wording is quite correct, I think.  "It is one o'clock"; "It is ten (minutes) past one".

Is this different in the US?

If we’re talking speech, o’clock is usually avoided altogether.

“What time is it?”

“One.”


When writing, I was under the impression that the o’clock should still be used.  “Ten minutes past one o’clock.”  Written words are more ambiguous than spoken, as we don’t have environmental cues like scene, facial expression, and personal interactive experience to help differentiate their meaning.

But, as an author, I can also firmly attest that all rules of writing can be firmly tossed out the window and forgotten when it comes to creative applications.  (Such as, “Never start a sentence with ‘But’, as I just did for emphasis. :P). If Fell likes it as is, its fine as is.  I was just thinking it was a flag he may have missed setting, so I mentioned it.  Not a big deal either way; just personal preference in linguistic styles. ;)

[Qwerkey]

Steve, I temporarily forgot your unparalleled lexical expertise.  I had not thought about the o'clock when not exactly the hour.  It does sound odd "it is ten past one o'clock", but I suppose that it is technically correct.

[STxAxTIC]

I haven't researched this at all, but I assume "o clock" must have started as "on the clock". As in "It's 10 minutes and 23 seconds on the clock".

How to settle the argument you're all having, I have no idea - we should divert to the wisdom of Fellippe, whom has a better command of English than most native speakers and patently *everyone* not from the northeast.

[Pete]

My question is... It's ten minutes past one... Well, ten minutes past one WHAT? O'clock clears that up, nicely. That's not so much from a literary standard as it is from a comedic one. Now kidding aside for the moment, I think most people in The U.S. say, "It's ten past one." Minutes are implied, although sure, some kook could mean it's 10 seconds past one, but we don't even have people that nutty living here in California. Quarter past and half past are used more than 15 past and 30 past. After is sometimes used instead of past. No one ever says it's a third past anything, or three-quarters past, for that matter. How about it's 25-cents shy of a dollar past one? Well, there I go again.

Pete

[SMcNeill]

I haven't researched this at all, but I assume "o clock" must have started as "on the clock". As in "It's 10 minutes and 23 seconds on the clock".

How to settle the argument you're all having, I have no idea - we should divert to the wisdom of Fellippe, whom has a better command of English than most native speakers and patently *everyone* not from the northeast.

O’clock is used when the primary hour is in use.

One o’clock.  Two o’clock.

One thirty doesn’t have o’clock.  Verbally, “half past one” doesn’t need it, but I was always taught when writing, the rule is to follow the hour, so it’s “half past one o’clock” written.

Of course, writing rules change over time, and with the invention of text messages and mobile keyboards, a lot of those older rules are fading away.  Take “okay” for an example.  It used to be “okay”, but that was too much writing, so it became “OK”.  Now, it’s often just “K”. 

How I was taught 40 yrs ago may very well not be the same rule for the kids of today.  In the end, it’s not a big deal one way or another, and mainly a matter of personal preference — unless, of course, somebody is paying you to code it.  Then you follow their instructions, no matter how odd you might find them to be.  Paychecks trump personal preference, as I’ve had to deal with in writing.  To get a short story published in a local magazine, I had to change the word “niggerly” to “miserly”, because they found it “racist”.  (Insert loooooong sigh here.)

***********

@Pete: We don’t hear “three-quarters past”, but we do hear, “quarter till”.  ;)

[Qwerkey]

Interestingly, when English speakers say "It is half-past two" the Dutch say "het is half drie" (it is half (to) three).

[FellippeHeitor]

Being a speaker of English as a foreign language, what I have to say is that that's how I've been taught and that's how I teach. Since language is a construction and as long as there are people speaking it there will be constant evolution, I can only watch as you natives discuss it and eventually tell my students: "this is how it works, but some native speakers disagree" and then proceed to quote each of you.

Far from a linguistic assessment, the word clock above is solely based on the hardware version I presented in the links as the discussion unfolded. Since it *speaks* as I do, I felt quite comfortable using the same wording. Aside from that, I'm not that inclined to defend this or that form.

@Pete:
I don't think TTS capability is a must here, as having this sitting silently on the desktop looks like a better approach.

However, it'd be as easy as adding this at the end of SUB __UI_BeforeUpdateDisplay (and adjusting the SHELL call accordingly):

Code: QB64: [Select]

1.     STATIC prevText$
2.     TimeText$ = ""
3.     FOR i = 1 TO UBOUND(Word)
4.         IF Control(Word(i)).ForeColor = _RGB32(111, 205, 0) THEN 'if the word is highlighted
5.             TimeText$ = TimeText$ + Caption(Word(i)) + " "
6.         END IF
7.     NEXT
8.  
9.     IF TimeText$ <> prevText$ THEN
10.         prevText$ = TimeText$
11.         SHELL "yourTTSprogram " + TimeText$ 'this line requires being adapted to the way the TTS program requires to be called
12.     END IF

[Pete]

That's neat. Unlike your desktop only plan, this TTS addition would be practical for me. I often fall asleep in the recliner, while working on my laptop. With TTS, I could get it to say... "It's past eleven o'clock. Go to bed, dumbass! It would be nice hearing that in something other than my wife's voice, for a change. :(

Pete