[liblouis-liblouisxml] Re: Please don't misunderstand the importance of what John Boyer is saying
- From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: liblouis-liblouisxml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sat, 26 Oct 2013 15:05:32 -0500
Susan,
Thanks for helping to clarify things. I am indeed thinking of a
Domain-Specific language (DSL). It has a simple form: a pattern,
including places where something should be replaced or inserted and an
action which specifies how the pattern should be changed. For a preview,
people can consider the present language used for context and multipass
rules. I'm looking at droping the term script altogether, since it
causes confusion.
On another subject, i think we should be talking about algorithms, not
what programming language to use. Algorithms are primary. The programing
language used is secondary.
John B
On Sat, Oct 26, 2013 at 12:14:56PM -0600, Susan Jolly wrote:
> I think we are using the term "scripting language" in two different ways
> that is leading to misunderstanding and confusion,
>
> Certain existing programming languages such as Python are often referred to
> as scripting languages. You can read more about the use of this term in
> this Wikipedia article:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scripting_language
>
> I believe John Boyer is using this term as a synonym for what is also
> called a Domain Specific Language or DSL. He is not advocating developing a
> language such as Python. The concern is that we definitely need some
> high-level and uniform way for people familiar with the rules of a
> particular braille code to express or encode the possibly quite complex
> rules for the use of indicators in that code.
>
> As an example of the complexity of these rules I will contrast some of the
> rules for the use of the number sign in American English braille and in UEB.
>
> In our current English braille (EBAE) a single number sign is used before a
> braille sequence to indicate integers, real numbers, and also numeric
> sequences. A numeric sequence consists of digits plus one or more of six
> special characters: colon, comma, decimal, fraction line, hyphen, and
> slash. That is, the scope of the number sign is not terminated by any of
> these six characters but it is terminated by a space, slash, letter, etc.
>
> There are also various rules for when a letter sign is needed if a letter
> or group of letters immediately follows a number. In older versions of
> EBAE a letter sign was only needed to avoid ambiguity where the same
> braille cell could represent a letter or digit. The latest rule is that a
> letter sign is always needed if a letter immediate follows a number or is
> joined to it by a hyphen with the exception that if a single letter is
> immediately followed by another number sign, then the letter sign is not
> required.
>
> The rules for the use of the UEB numeric indicator are quite different from
> the EBAE ones. In the first place, the indicator is actually two cells.
> The first cell is always the standard dots 3456. The second cell can be a
> digit, a period, a decimal point, a comma, a space, or, if necessary, a
> second dots 3456. There are six symbols that don't end the scope of the
> indicator. Also the dot 5 numerical space doesn't end the scope if it is
> immediately followed by another digit. The UEB numeric indicator also
> establishes a special Grade 1 mode unless terminated by a hyphen or dash.
> This means that in many cases contractions cannot be used immediately after
> numbers.
>
> I hope it is clear from just this one example that this is a very serious
> issue that is going to require a lot of thought.
>
> Susan Jolly
>
>
>
>
>
>
> For a description of the software, to download it and links to
> project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
--
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities
For a description of the software, to download it and links to
project pages go to http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Other related posts:
