Susan,
I completely agree that changing the print file or "input" is the best way
to go because it forces you to become familiar with and understand the
translation software. Unfortunately, transcribers are almost always under
tremendous pressure to finish the job as quickly as possible, which means
they'll take any shortcut that makes that happen. Ironically, most people
don't even use a word processor correctly, but they can fake it because
they can get the file to look right on the screen. Of course, they run
into trouble when they try to change the print size because the word
processor assumes that you're playing by the rules when you generate the
document.
The main advantage to having a "portable braille format" is that a file in
that format could be sent directly to the braille embosser without the need
for translation software, which often costs more than people want to spend,
especially if they aren't in the business of transcribing braille.
Steve
On Friday 6/20/03 10:55 Susan Jolly wrote:
Hi everyone,
I have two related questions about the general issues related to braille file formats that have come up in the last week or so.
Here is the background for the first question. When I first learned to use a computer many years ago, there was a clear distinction between input and output just like there is when you use a calculator now.
The human prepared the input and the computer program produced the output. If there was something wrong with the output, then the human would go back to the input and make any necessary changes. If it became obvious that the problem was not with the input, then the human would get the computer program fixed. In other words, one did not directly change the output in the case of a problem.
With braille transcribing we don't follow that old approach. I think everyone understands that the print source is the input and the braille file is the output but that doesn't keep people from changing the braille file. This seems to be done for at least three reasons. First, it is sometimes just quicker or easier than going back to the print source or trying to understand how to do something complicated. Second, sometimes the transcribing software doesn't work properly and there isn't any way to get the software fixed quickly. Third, the transcriber wants to make some sort of personal customization that is outside the rules that the software supports.
Now, except for the case of personal customization, it seems to me that it would be better if we worked toward the situation where the transcriber only changes the print source input, including, of course, formatting tags, when the braille output doesn't come out properly.
My first question is how the rest of you feel about the desirability of just changing the print input and not the braille output?
Now to the background for the second question. It was pointed out here that it would be useful if there were a new, special file format for braille output that would allow the same braille file to be displayed or embossed using different settings for the number of cells per line or the number of lines per page. Now you can imagine this would have to be quite a complicated format just to deal with the effect of the change in the number of cells per line on braille sequencing rules. And, as others have pointed out, the page numbers will generally change so if there is a Table of Contents, that would have to be adjusted automatically. Nonetheless, it is probably possible even though difficult.
My second question is what advantages, if any, using this special file format would have over simply re-transcribing the original print source with the new parameters?
Of course, the possibility of re-transcribing assumes that the original braille output is completely consistent with the original print which means there haven't been any direct changes to the braille output. (Actually, it is unlikely that one could make direct changes to the special file format we are imagining because of its complexity.)
Thank you, Susan Jolly
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