Re: nfbtrans conversion

  • From: "John J. Boyer" <john.boyer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2011 08:06:24 -0500

Jamal,

Your understanding of BrailleBlaster is correct. Note that it is one 
word not two. We have discussed makeing BrailleBlaster a plug-in for 
OpenOffice, but our requirements are so specialized that we decided to 
make it a sepoarate aplication. The same goes for making it a customized 
version of Eclipse. However, we will definitely use some of the Eclipse 
packages. In particular, I am considering using JFace instead of 
building the GUI with SWT bricks from scratch. We may also use other 
Eclipse packages, such as for internationalization and keybindings. This 
is a learning experience for me. I've only been intensively involved 
with Java for about a year. We haven't considered plug-ins, but we may 
do so down the road. 

Thanks,
John

On Fri, Jul 08, 2011 at 07:31:31AM -0400, Jamal Mazrui wrote:
> John,
> A question about Braille Blaster design.  If I understand correctly, the 
> plan is to develop a fairly sophisticated, multi-document editor using 
> the SWT library.  Since Eclipse is based on SWT, and customized Eclipse 
> versions are regularly developed for many purposes, why not develop a 
> custom Eclipse version instead?  Wouldn't this re-use existing, tested 
> architecture and conform to a robust API that already supports 
> extensibility via plug-ins, etc.?
> 
> Jamal
> 
> 
> On 7/8/2011 5:27 AM, John J. Boyer wrote:
> >Steve,
> >
> >Thanks for the clarifications and for promoting liblouis and
> >BrailleBlaster. The problems you are having with Word documents could be
> >largely resolved by updating the semantic-action file that handles the
> >Word xml output. A better approach might be to use the Daisy-in-Word
> >plugin, which woould give better output for the current xml2brl program
> >to work with. This is being replaced with a much more capable file2brl
> >program. Eventually, all of this will be packaged in BrailleBlaster.
> >
> >What BrailleBlaster needs most urgently is funds to hire an experienced
> >Java programmer. i have one in mind. But there are plenty of experienced
> >programers on this list who could help as volunteers. We need C
> >programmers as well,to work on the liblouis suite of software. Not
> >least, we need technical writers to produce good documentation and
> >tutorials.
> >
> >Thanks,
> >John
> >
> >On Thu, Jul 07, 2011 at 10:32:16PM -0500, Steve Jacobson wrote:
> >>Hi,
> >>
> >>In many ways, I regret having brought this up, although I certainly do
> >>appreciate the help.  I want to provide a little background that might
> >>make a number of things clearer and thereby respond to several notes.
> >>NFBTRANS started as a Pascal
> >>program perhaps thirty years ago that was run under DOS written by a
> >>staff person of our organization for internal use.  There was a period
> >>when it was available commercially but this didn't seem to be the route
> >>to take so the source code was released.  As I understand it, it was
> >>converted to C using a pascal-to-C converter and many, many enhancements
> >>were made by mostly one volunteer.  I suspect that the code of most
> >>programs that have been around for that long is not terribly neat.  Also,
> >>it is my understanding that the assembly code was not required in all
> >>cases but only when compiled under certain compilers.  That was the case
> >>many years ago and may not even be the case today at all, I don't know
> >>for certain about that.
> >>
> >>There is a lot that could be done with this code and this software in
> >>general, but my purpose in providing information on it was specifically
> >>to get it running as it is under 64-bit systems.  There was a PowerBasic
> >>front end that was known as WINBRL that provided a GUI interface.
> >>However, there is no further development there, either.  It is my
> >>opinion that any effort to make major changes to the code would be
> >>better placed toward the furthering of John Boyer's Braille Blaster
> >>project.  This is really pretty complicated software, especially when
> >>going from text to contracted braille where formatting commands are
> >>implemented.  We may even find that a clean compile may not guarantee
> >>that there are not bugs, or at least this is one warning I have received.
> >>However, if NFBTRANS could be made to work on 64-bit platforms fairly
> >>easily as appears might be the case, it would fill a short term gap for
> >>many of us until something better and more modern in its design comes
> >>along.  This could be Braille Blaster, or maybe even something else
> >>built upon the LibLouis work.  In the meantime, I am very grateful to
> >>those who have worked upon this over the years, and the funny thing is
> >>that when I translated a file and got the results I wanted, it just
> >>never dawned upon me what the code looked like.  I well know that is not
> >>the way to do development on a tightly structured project, but this
> >>software never was that.  However, it worked for a long time for very
> >>many people and still fills a gap.
> >>
> >>John, as you know, I have looked at and like much of what is being done
> >>with LIBLOUIS and think that there is a lot of potential.  I have more
> >>to learn about it, but I did have some difficulty getting a nicely
> >>formatted document out of Word, but I don't know for sure if it was
> >>within the translator or how the structure of the document gets saved to
> >>XML.  For example, hanging indents in Word did not hang in braille.  I
> >>found that I had to be careful how I saved as XML, too, to avoid having
> >>the text split up.  Some words had spaces within them, for example.
> >>There is more for me to understand, and I know you have more work to do,
> >>so it is not fair for me to make a judgment on my very small amount of
> >>experience.  I guess this is why I don't see a quick and dirty fix of
> >>NFBTRANS as competing with what you are trying to do, but rewriting
> >>NFBTRANS would, and I think would be a waste of time.
> >>
> >>Again, thanks to everyone for the help they have given, but I would urge
> >>John to give us specifics as to what he needs and maybe we can be of
> >>help.
> >>
> >>Best regards,
> >>
> >>Steve Jacobson
> >>
> >>__________
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> >

-- 
John J. Boyer; President, Chief Software Developer
Abilitiessoft, Inc.
http://www.abilitiessoft.com
Madison, Wisconsin USA
Developing software for people with disabilities

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