This is very interesting. As a transcriber, I do not know how else
braille could be represented other than ascii characters, since that is
how all word processing is done. Even the Tiger embosser, which is
trying to marry graphics and braille, uses ascii when it comes to
braille. When I need to quickly dash off a simbraille printout for a
signage customer, I just type in the ascii characters directly into a
blank Word file. Transcribing is, in a sense, very, VERY glorified word
processing--how else would we do it without ascii?
You are right, of course, in that in an ideal world we could emboss
braille or New York Point or graphics all together without any
difficulties. We just have to make sure that the ability to function
otherwise is not compromised.
We at National Braille Press look at ascii characters all day, every
day. That is mostly because we need to make corrections to files without
retranslating them. I'm sure this is the case for the other major
braille printing houses. I don't know how much braille the major houses
produce versus the smaller organizations, but even if we are a "tiny
minority" of people, we can't work any other way.
And the beat goes on. :)
Lissa NBP
David Holladay wrote:
This is a great idea. But it is a bit impractical. The problem is that virtually all of our users do not understand the concept of an encoding between ASCII and braille characters.
In one sense, it is an obsolete concept. A truely modern embosser would allow an arbitrary use of the field of dots. If you want graphics, fine. If you want New York Point (2 dots high, 2, 3, or 4 wide) fine. If you wanted to experiment with a 4 by 4 block that allowed perfec representation of a 16 bit Uni-code, fine. To do this would require the driving software to express raw dot patterns.
But back to the task at hand. Braille transcribers who only look at dot patterns do not ever look at ASCII representations of braille. Many users do not closely examine the braille, they just output and give it to blind people for comment.
So only a small minority want or need an ASCII representation. Of those, only a tiny number would have a problem if it was not exactly set the way they want it right out of the box, as long as we follow a protocol as I have suggested.
Believe me, the DBT team has discussed asking users this question many times. Each time we conclude we will lose people if we try to explain it.
-- David Holladay (with a tip of the hat to Peter, who dearly wishes all embossers could be addressed as strictly a field of dots)
---------------------------
At 08:18 AM 7/22/2004 -0400, you wrote:
Hello Dave:
During the installation process, there could be a prompt that says "Please choose the international braille table you want to use as the display braille table when using the program. Please choose from the list below:". You could ship the product with the North American display as the default.
You could then choose the language from a list box with the <UP> and <DOWN> arrow keys or you could make the selection by clicking with the mouse.
What do others think.
Siincerely:
Dave Durber
On Tue, 20 Jul 2004 15:00:07 -0500, you wrote:
Hello, Testers;
I need you opinion on an issue regarding what happens when DBT boots up for the first time.
This involves the Global, Internationalization, Braille Code for Display
Some background is necessary here.
In DBT, if you are looking at a braille file in braille dot font, you see the actual dot pattern that will hopefully be embossed. If you are looking at a braille file with an inkprint font, things get more interesting.
In North America, we are used to seeing a full cell represented with an equal sign. Why? Because that is the way we do it, and all braille devices set for North American braille know that an equal sign means a full cell. If you are using a braille display device with a screen review program, the screen review program looks at the equal sign on the screen and puts a full cell on the braille display.
But in France, they prefer an accented e as the print representation of a full cell.
DBT has several different tables. If you want to, you can experiment with them by selecting Global, Internationalization, Braille Code for Display. Be sure to have a braille file, and select an inkprint font to view it (otherwise, nothing changes).
-----------------------------------------
Where things get interesting is that the French do not like the system as it is. Up till now, when you first boot up DBT, it defaults to North American. This does not bother Americans at all. But it is annoying to those who give tech support in France who have to keep telling people to go to Global, Internationalization, Braille Code for Display, and then choose "French"
To deal with this, Pete has put in some code that says "If this is the first time this code is being used, and you are in France", set for French Braille Code for display.
That is all well and good. But if someone were using a computer 100 meters into Belgium, (and had told Windows that their nation was Belgium), then DBT would still default to North American because the nation is not French.
----------------------------------------
I think it would be a good idea to extend Peter's idea. I offer a proposal. If we can come to some agreement, then DBT can wake up more internationalized than before.
----------------------------------------
Step 1:
If located in France, use French display code If located in Germany, use German display code If located in Spain, use Spanish display code If located in the UK, use the British display code
Step 2:
If located in Europe (i.e. the nation's telephone country code starts with 3 or 4) and the language of interface is French, the use French display code and the language of interface is German, use the German display code and the language of interface is Spanish, use the Spanish display code ?? if the language of interface is English, do we use North American or Britich display code (the question is, does nayone outside of the UK ever use the British display code)
Step 3: If located outside of Europe ... (I have no idea of anything but to default to North American) (I do not know if those in South America use North American settings or Spanish settings on their braille devices)
Some of you may have noticed that DBT does not have any Italian tables for braille display. At this point, I do not have a valid table (defined as a unique, single ASCII character for every 64 braille symbols; no braille symbols left out). I would welcome a valid Italian table.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please respond to this. I would like to work this out quickly.
-- David Holladay
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