Dear Dima,
I'm sorry for this delay. I do not work for
HumanWare, but as a BrailleNote mPower user,
I'll give you some of my opinions on these
matters. My opinions follows your questions:
1. I wish that in the next version of
KeySoft, there will be the complete Unicode
table list. Because I was very disappointed
by learning to use the name
your keystrokes and dot combinations were
available but a whole list of the Unicode
characters was absent. For example I went on
a foreign site such as
Russian and there was only gibberish and the
Braille display had unreadable text. I
thought of finding out the hexidecimal of
every character I needed
but when I used hex value to give me the
decimal character in KeyWord and it did not
have the table for the character. The
Braille display still had unreadable
symbles. So, the expended tables should have
unicode characters such as 0x1072 which
becomes a character 4210.
In my opinion, this can be implemented in
some form (not in the next version, but a
version in the near future). This requires
an entire rewrite of the Unicode Tables file
to meet the latest unicode character sets
that are used today (Jonathan Sharp from
HumanWare might clarify this matter for you).
2. Also it would be interesting to find out
if an instant messenger will be created for
the KeySoft that could use the same
functionality as KeyMail.
Yes, it has been discussed before on the
list, and at one time, a considerable list
traffic was devoted to speculations about new
features on a new messender client. It is
code named KeyChat and it is still in
development (I will not go further because
the software in question is in development
and I don't want to see any nonuseful posts
about it).
3. Instead of having the speech synthesizers
built in, it be a importable feature that
other synthesizers such as Sapi5 lhtts and
others could be installed.
Unfortunately, it is not possible at this
point. Technical note: synth files usually
take a valuable amount of memory of its own
(Eloquence, for example, use about 1.5 to 2
MB of memory more than KeyNote Gold does).
In some cases with large synthesizers like
Eloquence, it sometimes does slow down
BrailleNote if used with other memory
intensive apps such as KeyWeb and Media
Player. When adding software such as extra
synthesizers, you'll need to consider
BrailleNote's performance and memory usage.
4. Make Russian be available as speech and
Braille language. (If not, I am willing to
send you all the information needed to make
the extended unicode table
list such as the characters themselves and
their hexidecimal and decimal values.)
Good question (personally, I have no opinions
about this; if anyone on this list uses
Russian as either primary or secondary
language, please comment on this question).
5. Interactive fiction game program that
will be KeySoft accessible to use and to
write your own game.
Again, just like synthesizers, it requires
vast amount of memory due to issues such as
code manipulations, compiling to Z-Code, etc.
6. Make KeySoft not as much an open platform
but as more customizable close platform.
Things such as sounds, and having a startup
messege that is heard when
the BN is on.
It is, and it was, a customizable closed
system. But this requires advanced knowledge
of how KeySoft functions with these system
files (generally customizing KeySoft to meet
one's needs requires advanced system file
manipulations such as replacing the system
sounds with the ones you want, but you'll
need to realize that these sound files must
be named exactly like the default sounds in
order for KeySoft to use them properly,
otherwise, an error will be given). At this
point, the most advanced system customization
that I've found (you can call this tweak if
you'd like) is to change various system
sounds with the ones you want to hear with
the same filename as default sound (this is
rather complicated, so if you don't want to
mess with the system files, don't do it). In
case of startup messages, this requires an
entire rewrite of the UI to meet your
suggestions (there are things which can be
changed, and others which cannot such as
startup sequence and startup messages since
it is not KeySoft specific, rather it is
specific to Windows CE).
7. In the Pronounciation dictionary make
space between words be possible to enter, for
example: word to correct? "main menu"
incorrect spelling? "mPower
ready main menu"
Please messege me back with ways I can better
keep contact with you in order to make the
most of my product.
It is possible to do it. But because Main
Menu and other prompts are part of the UI,
you cannot chagge it. Like advanced
customization: there are things which can be
changed, and things which cannot.
8. A similar feature could be made such as
the Pronounciation dictionary that could be
used to change braille representation of
characters of a different
braille code to the prefered, for example the
correct word: "quality" the changed
presentation? "dots 4,5,6q" which is the word
quality in Grade 3 Braille.
A feature like this will be priceless to
those who use different Braille codes to have
presentation in that code such as braille
music notation, Nemeth
code...
There used to be Braille Exceptions Table
which did the same thing. However with the
introduction of Duxbury Braille Translator,
it became obsolete to use these
representations. If it is possible to chanhe
the braille representations using the
exceptions rule, then it will open many
posibilities, such as modifying braille
contractions to that of Grade 3 braille,
changing the braille symbol, etc. As for
Nemeth code, A Nemeth Tutorial software has
been announced.
If you have any questions (probably detailed
questions about inner workings of KeySoft),
feel free to write to the list and many
knowledgeable people on the list will answer
your queries.
Cheers,
Joseph
----- Original Message -----
From: "Daredevil Supremacy"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: <[email protected]
Date sent: Sun, 4 Feb 2007 20:29:24 -0500
Subject: [Braillenote] extended Unicode
tables
Hello, dear HumanWare BrailleNote developers,
My name is Dima and I love to use the
BrailleNote mPower BT32.
I was told that to meet the customers' needs,
you take requests and tips for the future
improvements of KeySoft.
1. I wish that in the next version of
KeySoft, there will be the complete Unicode
table list. Because I was very disappointed
by learning to use the name
your keystrokes and dot combinations were
available but a whole list of the Unicode
characters was absent. For example I went on
a foreign site such as
Russian and there was only gibberish and the
Braille display had unreadable text. I
thought of finding out the hexidecimal of
every character I needed
but when I used hex value to give me the
decimal character in KeyWord and it did not
have the table for the character. The
Braille display still had unreadable
symbles. So, the expended tables should have
unicode characters such as 0x1072 which
becomes a character 4210.
2. Also it would be interesting to find out
if an instant messenger will be created for
the KeySoftthat could use the same
functionality as Key-mail.
3. Instead of having the speech synthesizers
built in, it be a importable feature that
other synthesizers such as Sapi5 lhtts and
others could be installed.
4. Make Russian be available as speech and
Braille language. (If not, I am willing to
send you all the information needed to make
the extended unicode table
list such as the characters themselves and
their hexidecimal and decimal values.)
5. Interactive fiction game program that
will be KeySoft accessible to use and to
write your own game.
6. Make KeySoft not as much an open platform
but as more customizable close platform.
Things such as sounds, and having a startup
messege that isheard when
the BN is on.
6. In the Pronounciation dictionary make
space between words be possible to enter, for
example: word to correct? "main menu"
incorrect spelling? "mPower
ready main menu"
Please messege me back with ways I can better
keep contact with you in order to make the
most of my product
7. A similar feature could be made such as
the Pronounciation dictionary that could be
used to change braille representation of
characters of a different
braille code to the prefered, for example
the correct word: "quality" the changed
presentation? "dots 4,5,6q" which is the
word quality in Grade 3 Braille.
A feature like this will be priceless to
those who use different Braille codes to have
presentation in that code such as braille
music notation, Nemeth
code...
Please email me back and maybe I can Provide
the necessary information and different ways
I can be involved with the BrailleNote mPower
development and
function enhancement.
Thank you.
It would be interesting to receive comments
from other BN users.
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank
message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your
preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/br
aillenote
___
To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit
http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
