From 167fea6b5b87a1cd97165d4e425699c2ecdb2bbf Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Tursiae Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2025 00:02:57 +1100 Subject: [PATCH] TTS: Better document the ownership and task/control flow. --- src/tangara/tts/README.md | 34 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 34 insertions(+) diff --git a/src/tangara/tts/README.md b/src/tangara/tts/README.md index 63d587da..54aae8ef 100644 --- a/src/tangara/tts/README.md +++ b/src/tangara/tts/README.md @@ -47,3 +47,37 @@ logs a `WARN`ing each time it cannot find a TTS sample. You can enable these log messages on the console by using the command `loglevel warn`, and then manipulating the click wheel to move through the UI to discover other missing TTS samples. + +## Tasks and Event Passing + +### In the `ui` task + +There are two main threads involved with running TTS - firstly, the `ui` +task, which is rooted in `ui::UiTask::Main()` (`src/tangara/ui/lvgl_task.hpp)`. +By way of the LVGL stack, eventually navigation in the UI results in sending +a `tts::SelectionChanged` message from `input::TextToSpeech::describe()` +(`src/tangara/input/feedback_tts.cpp`) to `tts::Provider::feed()` +(`src/tangara/tts/provider.cpp`), all in the UI task. + +The `tts::Provider` is responsible for translating the UI string from a lump +of text to a TTS sample filename, which is then passed along to the player +in `tts::Player::playFile()` (`src/tangara/tts/player.cpp`), still on the UI +thread. + +The UI task has a smaller stack than the `worker_X` tasks, and are not +appropriate to use for audio decoding work, both because they would block any +UI updates, and also have insufficient stack space for audio decode activity. + +### Transitioning to the `WorkerPool` background threads + +`playFile()` uses `tasks::WorkerPool::Dispatch()` to fire off a lambda in a +different task - one of the background `worker_X` tasks, owned by `WorkerPool`. +Control returns to the UI thread in under 2ms, so it remains pretty responsive +throughout this flow. + +The background worker uses `tts::Player::openAndDecode` to do the bulk of the +decode/resample/playback work, and it is on this background task that the +majority of the work occurs. Note that there is nothing stopping the TTS worker +from consuming a number of worker tasks at once, but we rely on the interaction +of stream cancellation behaviour between the workers to ensure that previous +samples' playback is promptly terminated after a new sample is requested.