I have a COM wrapper to liblious (and UMCL) that has gone stale.* I keep
meaning to update it to the current build, but never get around to it.*
I'd like to update it and get it into the sources so anyone can use it.
There are essentially two parts to the interface:* discovery and usage.*
Discovery means finding the COM components that support the interface and
what info they provide and usage is actually calling for the translation.*
The advantage of using COM versus compiling in a version of liblious is
that the application (in my case, MathPlayer) can evolve separate from
LibLious and people can independently update.* Using a DLL does that also,
but COM means that others can implement the interface (as UMCL did), so
you have a wider range of choices -- every product is bound to have their
own set of "quirks"/bugs.* The downside to COM is that although it is a
cross platform solution, it is really only used on Windows.* If you are
providing a windows solution, it is a great way to go.
I can't remember how we solved the names that we present to users, but I
don't think it was a good solution (I think only Nemeth existed we we
wrote it).* Definitely, it would be much better to have some meta info at
the top of the file that could be read without reading the entire file.* A
commenting convention as Michael proposes would be OK -- just try to keep
it simple.
*** Neil
On Sun, Nov 8, 2009 at 3:47 AM, Michael Whapples<[1]mwhapples@xxxxxxx>
wrote:
I have a few thoughts, possibly influenced from some of the python
stuff.:
* Could we have description as another option? I don't know how
liblouisxml reads the configuration files but in python if using the
ConfigParser module then a programme would not be affected by extra
options not originally thought about, it would just ignore the extra
options (if liblouisxml works this way then it would be able to accept a
description option as it stands).
* May be a comment done in a certain way at the beginning of the file
then only the start of the file needs to be read. I would imagine you
may want something to determine that it is actually a description
comment so that for files with no description then the app won't show
the sort of comments existing at the top of the configuration files
which do not help understand what that file is for. I will admit I
haven't looked back at the discussion about liblouis tables, I do intend
to. I am thinking as an example the comment for a description may start
#* instead of just #.
Michael Whapples
On 08/11/09 03:48, John J. Boyer wrote:
Selecting configuration files is similar to the problem of selecting
liblouis tables that Christikn discussed a couple of days ago. The
files
could begin with a descriptive comment and the application could just
display these in a radio-button list. We'll be working on tables and
can
consider configuration files also.
John
On Sat, Nov 07, 2009 at 10:51:46PM +0000, Michael Whapples wrote:
*
Thanks will look at that.
As for selecting the configuration files, couple of questions:
* Is there any way for a programme to find out the lbx_files
directory?
* While the three cfg files have reasonably easy to understand file
names at the moment, I was just wondering whether there was a way to
get
a more readable configuration name or may be even a description? I
do
doubt this as the contents of the file don't hold this information.
Its
just I would have liked it that a application could present to the
user
a list like:
"UK maths Braille output with capitals for A4 paper"
"UK maths Braille output without capitals for A4 paper"
"Nemeth Braille output for A4 paper"
...
I know that the above may not represent the current options with
liblouisxml but as people develop more configurations, tables, etc
such
a list could start forming and filenames may not be enough to keep
it
easy for the user.
Michael Whapples
On 07/11/09 21:39, John J. Boyer wrote:
* *
Liblouisxml will handle bare equations in MathML. This is already
done
by an application from ViewPlus. Use the function
lbx_translateString
which is described in the documentation. The configuration file
specifies which braille math code to use. The lbx_files directory
contains various configuration files, such as nemeth.cfg
ukmaths.cfg
marburg.cfg I think all the user would have to do is pick the math
code.
John
On Sat, Nov 07, 2009 at 07:17:35PM +0000, Michael Whapples wrote:
* * *
Hello,
I know that liblouisxml can handle MathML but I would like to
know a
little about what it can do. I am looking into using liblouisxml
possibly to add some sort of math Braille access in screen
readers
(either NVDA or orca, to be decided as I don't know how well
they can
communicate with firefox).
If I hand liblouisxml (from a programme) some MathML, but it is
only the
equation will liblouisxml be able to handle this? I have noticed
that
when sending a full document to liblouisxml it lays it out as if
it will
be embossed, my use is for a Braille display, will it do this
for the
example of just sending an equation?
Some separate stuff: How can I get my programme to know what the
various
configurations will do so it could present the user with a list
of
options, or will I have to manually map these to easy to
understand names?
I am sure I have some other comments on liblouisxml and mathml,
but
those are slightly different and so I will deal with them in
another
message.
Michael Whapples
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