SIMMONSFD@VAX1.COMPUTER-CENTRE.BIRMINGHAM.AC.UK (Frank Simmons) (08/14/90)
Index Number: 9799 [This is from the BLIND-L mailing list] We are going to setup a braille embosser as a network printer on our campus this fall. Have you an idea as to how the output can be delivered to the correct destination without employing a braillist to read the header information on the output? Frank Simmons University of Birmingham England
Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org (Eric Bohlman) (08/21/90)
Index Number: 9912
FS> From: SIMMONSFD@VAX1.COMPUTER-CENTRE.BIRMINGHAM.AC.UK (Frank Simmons)
FS>
FS> We are going to setup a braille embosser as a network printer on our
FS> campus this fall. Have you an idea as to how the output can be delivered
FS> to the correct destination without employing a braillist to read the
FS> header information on the output?
How about something similar to the old (maybe not so old) mainframe
practice of having a header page printed in big block letters? If
the Braille printer has a mode where you can specify individual
dots (or even if you have to use patterns of standard cells), a
program could create a Braille page where the dots would spell out
an identifier in Roman letters and Arabic numbers. Creating the
fonts would be trivial; the one thing I'm not so sure about would
be how to get the page into the stream. If the network has a
facility for keeping two print jobs together, the user could submit
an "identifier page" followed by the bulk of the job. Does the
network have a utility for logging printer access? If so, just
follow the log.
On the other hand, there's a fairly obvious non-technical
solution: it looks like someone needs to be around to do the
delivery from all the network printers anyway, so why not have that
person be someone who knows Braille?
--
Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!115!778.1!Eric.Bohlman
Internet: Eric.Bohlman@p1.f778.n115.z1.fidonet.org