Re: Introducing GrabText app and financing problem
- From: Tyler Littlefield <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 18:33:42 -0600
I think the license from what I'm understanding will allow him to distribute it
free. So basically we're covering his developer licens. I don't think that
would allow us to use the same library though, transative ownership doesn't
seem to go well with most companies.
Thanks,
Tyler Littlefield
http://tds-solutions.net
Twitter: sorressean
On Mar 26, 2010, at 6:31 PM, qubit wrote:
> I just wondered if the license would make it free for everyone or just the
> person who paid the $699.
> --le
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Tyler Littlefield" <tyler@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 7:29 PM
> Subject: Re: Introducing GrabText app and financing problem
>
>
> I think he wants people to contribute so that the software will be free
> rather than requiring a license.
> Thanks,
> Tyler Littlefield
> http://tds-solutions.net
> Twitter: sorressean
>
> On Mar 26, 2010, at 6:27 PM, qubit wrote:
>
>> Jamal, are you suggesting that individuals pay $699 for a developers
>> license? or are you asking people to send in contributions toward one
>> person
>> getting the developers license?
>> If one person buys the $699 license, does that make it possible for
>> multiple
>> persons to access the source? or is that restricted?
>> Sorry, just trying to iron out the terms.
>> TIA
>> --le
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Jamal Mazrui" <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
>> To: <ProgrammingBlind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <Program-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Sent: Friday, March 26, 2010 5:33 PM
>> Subject: Introducing GrabText app and financing problem
>>
>>
>> Now available at
>> http://EmpowermentZone.com/gtsetup.exe
>>
>> Thanks go to Donald Marang for getting me interested in the topic of
>> screen OCR. My searches did not find a satisfactory free solution (Google
>> Tesseract, for example, does poorly on screen images). I did find and
>> compare several commercial OCR libraries. Typically, an individual
>> license costs in the hundreds of dollars, and a developer license in the
>> thousands -- often, with royalties charged for each distributed program.
>>
>> I did find what seems like a worthwhile solution: Text Grab SDK by
>> Renovation Software. Based on this library, GrabText can conveniently
>> extract and gather text from almost any application windows. An
>> individual license for the COM server library is $29 and a single
>> developer license is $699. If you want to consider contributing to a way
>> of making GrabText freely available, read about the financing issue in the
>> initial documentation, pasted below.
>>
>> Source code is in the GrabText.cs file in the GrabText program folder.
>>
>> Jamal
>>
>> [Initial documentation]
>>
>> GrabText
>> Beta 0.6
>> March 26, 2010
>> Copyright 2010 by Jamal Mazrui
>> GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
>>
>> Description
>>
>> GrabText is a command-line utility and dialog interface for grabbing text
>> from the screen. The command-line syntax is
>>
>> GrabText.exe SourceArea TargetOutput UserName LicenseKey
>>
>> The first parameter specifies the area of the screen to serve as the
>> source of text. The choices are ActiveWindow, FocusControl, CaretClip,
>> MouseClip, EveryArea, and PickWindow. Capitalization does not matter.
>> ActiveWindow is the most common choice, referring to the top-level window
>> that is currently active. FocusControl refers to the control within that
>> window that has focus. CaretClip or MouseClip refer to the string of text
>> at the caret or mouse position, respectively. EveryArea combines the
>> previous four areas into a longer string. PickWindow presents a list of
>> top-level windows from which to choose.
>>
>> The second parameter specifies what to do with the text: Voice (say it),
>> MessageBox (display in a standard message box), Clipboard (append to the
>> clipboard), or File (append to a file). The Voice, Clipboard, and File
>> options are On by default. The default file name is GrabTextOutput.txt,
>> stored in the GrabText data directory, which is located at
>> %AppData%\GrabText
>>
>> A configuration file, GrabText.ini, is also stored there. If a parameter
>> is not specified on the command line, its value is retrieved from the
>> configuration file, if present.
>>
>> The UserName and LicenseKey parameters are needed because GrabText depends
>> on a commercial programming library called Text Grab SDK (software
>> development kit), available from the web site
>> http://renovation-software.com
>>
>> At the time of this writing, a single license costs $29. The trial
>> version, distributed with GrabText, lasts for two weeks. Rather than
>> buying an individual license, consider contributing to the cost of a
>> developer license for the author of GrabText. This costs $699. It would
>> enable GrabText to be fully and freely functional for any user. Note that
>> GrabText, itself, is open source, and no compensation is sought for its
>> use. If anyone is able to set up a PayPal or equivalent site to be
>> transparent about any money collection effort, please say so.
>>
>> The default hotkey for invoking GrabText is Alt+Control+F8. This may be
>> changed by modifying properties of the GrabText shortcut on the Windows
>> desktop.
>>
>> The installer, gtsetup.exe, creates a GrabText program group in the
>> Windows Start Menu, with options for launching the program, uninstalling
>> it, or reading this ddocumentation. The default program folder is
>> C:\Program Files\GrabText
>>
>> GrabText needs to be invoked with a global hotkey so you can extract from
>> the current application window. Once launched, the program remains in
>> memory until you explicitly terminate it. Subsequent invocations of the
>> GrabText hotkey activate the current program in memory rather than loading
>> additional copies.
>>
>> There is another desktop shortcut called GrabTextOptions. By default, it
>> uses the same hotkey with a Shift added: Alt+Control+Shift+F8. It may be
>> invoked either with its hotkey or from the desktop. This invokes a dialog
>> with configuration options and utilities. The UserName and LicenseKey may
>> be specified. You may change settings for the screen area or output type.
>> You may inspect or clear the clipboard. You may pick an output file, open
>> it, remove it, or browse the GrabText data folder. You may restore
>> default settings, or present this documentation in your web browser. You
>> may quit running GrabText. All controls of the dialog have unique
>> Alt+Letter combinations -- except for the Cancel button, which is
>> activated directly with the Escape key.
>>
>> I welcome feedback, which helps GrabText improve over time.
>>
>> Jamal Mazrui
>> jamal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>
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