Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (12/05/90)
Index Number: 12245
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
The following is a short review of PC-Braille Pro from Computer Arts
in Boston.
I just received my PC-Braille at work and its pretty good. I
suppose some of you don't know what it is, so--its a software package
that will let you change normal text files, and Word Perfect files,
into several types of braille output, for several types of braille
output devices. It has so many features its downright mind boggling.
Anyway, as for translation quality, excellent. Speed, good.
Formatting abilities, best I have seen (inbluding Duxbury.).
Whats so great about this expensive package? It has it all.
If you can do it with Duxbury, you can do it with PCBraille, and
maybe better. I like the Duxbury products, but have not seen the
very latest versions with the new formatter so I can't make a very
good comparison yet.
Anyway never mind my poor writing style here, if you are interested
keep reading.
Okay, what do you get? You get PcBraille, the translator, PC-
Sift, and Wp-Sift, two formatting programs. You also get a program
called REpeat that I'm not sure of the function yet.
The translator runs off of command-line parms. For example,
bt -a <infile.ext >outfile.ext will only do an ascii print of the
file you specifiy as input. this sounds simple, but in many situations
its great--such as when brailling code. I use a led-120, and the
printer setup part of Pc-Braille is great. Yes, Duxbury also works
with the LED, but its not as straightforward.
bt -2 (the default) ifile ofile give grade 2 braille, while bt
-0 will give Computer Braille, that irritating stuff NLS or somebody
dreamed up to ocnfuse us braille readers.
bt -1 gives grade 1 for some useless reason, butr I suppose somebody
actually reads it.
The Formatters are wonderful, nearly perfect, and being improved
all the time. The best feature I have seen so far is this--
Wp-Sift is the formatting program that accepts WP files, and
then formats them as best as is possible for braille. It has a feature
that uses the WP v5.1 "note," feature to allow the user to put in
formatting codes in places in the print text, so they are not seen
in the print text without the reveal codes function.
What you get is the ability to mark up your text for the braille
translator, while leaving the text fine for WP printing, or later
transmission to a coworker.
This is truely an outstanding feature.
An example of its use is a text containing lots of computer coding
you can include a comment to change to ascii braille (for the coede),
and then at the end another comment to revert to the previous translation
mode.
All the reader needs to do then is find the offending code sections
and mark them, he can then change them, delete them, etc. and the
markers will be their for the later format step.
Okay, more later as I play and find more to tell. Have fun.
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman
Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.orgTandy.Way@f6.n377.z1.fidonet.org (Tandy Way) (12/05/90)
Index Number: 12304
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
al I ran pc braille with a daisy wheel printer but sold it earlier
this year. It did as advertised for me produced draft quality
braille.
... Politics make strange bedsores
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!377!6!Tandy.Way
Internet: Tandy.Way@f6.n377.z1.fidonet.orgAl.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (12/05/90)
Index Number: 12319
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Hi Bonnie:
I am not sure of the price, its not cheap however. You should
also look at Turbo Braille, because its much better priced--even if
in my opinion it doesn't have as many features. For many applications
you don't need the Caddy, when the Hyundi will do. God I almost wrote
Honda, but now that they are the in-thing ya can't do that anymore.
If you are interested I can write several sort of short msgs
describing other software/hardware systems available. I won't do
it unless somebody asks, because many in this echo already know about
the stuff. Let me know if you are interested.
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman
Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.orgBonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.org (Bonnie Snyder) (12/07/90)
Index Number: 12382
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Al, I'd be very interested to hear from you and others who have knowledge in
this area. Presently, I have NFBTrans and a Perky (Cranmer Modified Perkins
Brailler) and find that the software works "intermittently." I really need a
decent text to braille translator for the IBM that is within a reasonable
price range. So many of them are outrageously expensive. Anyway, whatever
info you'd like to share, I'd be very interested in. Thanks.
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!128!13!Bonnie.Snyder
Internet: Bonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.orgAl.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (12/29/90)
Index Number: 12615
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Actually the text-book format table will work nicely (mostly) for
producing NLS materials, but you are right they are not making NLS
their main point of Godliness. I think that this is good, but some
of the things they don't include are sort of just lazy, such as a
macro to do print paging, (leaf) as is done in the textbook world,
I would like for them to have written the macro into their standard
format file, as an extra option. I wrote my own, let me know if any
body wants it, it works ok, and will keep incrementing the pages such
as
121 121a 121b 121c 122 122a 122b etc.
then if their is an argument such as
.leaf 123 the page number will start at the argument and continue
from there.
Why doesn't the Arkenstone model E just do upside-down text,
rather than making the user set the option? Any thoughts on this?
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman
Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.orgDavid.Andrews@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (David Andrews) (01/04/91)
Index Number: 12634
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
DM> What do you mean it's easy t change from Grade one to
DM> grade two? --Daveed-
Daveed, I presume that Linda means from within a BIF file, a braille
intermediate file. As you know, this is a text file with formatting commands in
it, that the program then translates. You can generate these files for later
editing. You just put a backslash 1 to change to grade 1, a blachslash 0 to
change to change to computer braille and a backslash 2 to change back to Grade
2. While you wouldn't necessarily to use them for every day braille, they are
available when it absolutely has to be right.
David Andrews
... Your Sound Alternative
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!129!89!David.Andrews
Internet: David.Andrews@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.orgBonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.org (Bonnie Snyder) (01/04/91)
Index Number: 12636
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Linda, thanks for your response. You are the second one to recommend
TurboBraille ... and it surely sounds like something to investigate. The
Duxbury is excellent ... but SO expensive. Will be interested to find out
what the TurboBraille costs and how it works.
You mentioned in your message that you use NFBtrans. I'm trying to use it
with a Perky and have only realized limited success. Do you have any hints
that might help me out?
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!128!13!Bonnie.Snyder
Internet: Bonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.orgLinda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson) (01/08/91)
Index Number: 12660
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Hi, Bonnie!
Well, I've done some things with NFBTrans, but though I know
nothing about the Perky--I use a VersaPoint, I think it is
limited. I've not heard of any updates to it for a long time;
however, the Turbo Braille is always being updated. I think the
library in Denver or which ever group is headed by
Priscilla--sorry, don't know her last name, heads has Turbo
Braille. As I said, it seems much more flexible as far as
correcting Grade II translation errors. I think NFBtrans seems
more like something a transcriber would use. Maybe someone else
here can help and I'd be interested, too. I do word processing
and braille transcription at home, so I'm always interested in
comments on braille translators and printers. Please share what
your research reveals.
Take care,
Linda
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!130!33.0!Linda.Iverson
Internet: Linda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.orgLinda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson) (01/08/91)
Index Number: 12661
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Well, Daveed, as you know, no translator is perfect; when a word
is incorrectly translated; for example, the word "retrofitted"
might come out with an "of" sign in the middle, it would be easy
to go in and indicate that that portion of the word should be in
grade I and then you go back to Grade II. Turbo also allows you
to create a braille file with all the braille format commands so
you can refine your translation and then have better control of
the accuracy. Hope this helps.
Linda
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!130!33.0!Linda.Iverson
Internet: Linda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.orgAl.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) (01/11/91)
Index Number: 12874
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Hi Linda:
You are right about NFBTrans. Its not nearly the program Turbo
Braille is. I hate this practice of demonstration braille programs
doing one page only, and then, well you know thats it for this run.
Its not a good way to try out a program. I think something like
10 pages or so would be more useful, how can you look at pagination
abilities that way?
Besides, they copied half the stuff right from Duxbury, if you
are gonna do that, just get Duxbury, its better anyway.
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Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman
Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.orgBonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.org (Bonnie Snyder) (01/11/91)
Index Number: 12902
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
The more I hear about TurboBraille, the more interested I become.
Unfortunately, our funds are limited, so I'm going to have to thrash through
NFBtrans and try to get it to behave itself enough for reasonable
transcription. I will definitely share with you any useful info I get.
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!128!13!Bonnie.Snyder
Internet: Bonnie.Snyder@f13.n128.z1.fidonet.orgLinda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson) (01/15/91)
Index Number: 12921
Linda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.org (Linda Iverson) (01/15/91)
Index Number: 12921
[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]
Al, I couldn't agree with you more. I think ten pages or even
five would be fair. I can certainly understand anyone not
giving away their translator, but before I spend the kind of
money most of them cost I want to make sure it is what I can
use. Did you mean NFBTRANS or Turbo Braille copied half the
stuff from Duxbury? Which translators have you used? Have you
done anything with the Braille and Speak as a translator
directly into the computer? Also, does the BNS work with
Screenreader?
Take care,
Linda
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!130!33.0!Linda.Iverson
Internet: Linda.Iverson@p0.f33.n130.z1.fidonet.org