[bksvol-discuss] Re: M dash, how to make it?

  • From: "Paula and James Muysenberg" <outofsightlife@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 4 Jun 2006 21:34:30 -0500

Jake,

    I don't mean to prolong this discussion, but your post did bring one thing 
to mind. Forgive me if this has already been mentioned, as I admit I don't open 
all posts. I agree with you that most braille users will not be thrown off by 
the mistranslated emdash. I am concerned, however, about students who may be 
new to braille. Since Bookshare seems to especially want schools to sign up 
their students, it seems reasonable that this problem needs to be addressed 
soon.

    If none of the existing braille translation software handles the emdash 
properly, then there may not be a solution. Out of concern for students who use 
braille, however, I do think Bookshare needs to try to find some kind of 
work-around. I know funds are limited, but I hope Bookshare will not put this 
issue on the back burner.

Paula

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Jake Brownell 
  To: bksvol-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
  Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 2:47 PM
  Subject: [bksvol-discuss] Re: M dash, how to make it?


  Hi Evan,
      Here is one final thought for you on em dashes, and then I think we've 
hashed it out enough. *smile*.

      When I make character swaps, I do them only if a char swap won't impact 
either DAISY or BRF in a negative way. Changing all non standard quotes to the 
normal quotation mark is helpful to Braille translation software, but has no 
degredation to DAISY that I can see.

      However changing an em dash into a completely different set of chars, say 
a double dash, may be better for Braille, but not necessarily for DAISY. It 
implies to the DAISY reader that this is how the author has written the book, 
with two dashes rather than an em dash. And, do all TTS engines handle an em 
dash and double dash in the same way? I'm betting that they don't. And that's 
another possible drawback.

      I would think Braille readers are more likely to know that an em dash 
isn't translated correctly, than a DAISY reader knowing why an em dash isn't 
used correctly.

  Just food for thought....
  Jake

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