Ottawa Canada Dear Ethan and list:
I can tell you haven't studied Grade Three Braille thoroughly from your comparison of it to Grade Two Braille. Yes, you can take your notes on the Mpower in Grade Three Braille or Music Braille for that matter using the BT keyboard or the home row of the QT keyboard like a BT keyboard. However you should turn the speech off, because it won't be able to speak what you are writing as anything intelligible. Grade Three Braille has about 500 contractions. It does have additional short form words, and a whole lot more two-celled signs, including a full set of two cell signs beginning with: Dot 4, Dots 4 and 5, Dots 4, 5 and 6 And two-cell signs you never dreamed of. It also has additional initial letter signs, Final letter signs Two-vowel signs Lower signs And vowel omission rules. Then there is word outlining for rapidly writing words for which there is no initial letter, short form word, two-cell sign or lower sign. Then you omit spaces between words according to certain rules! There are signs to represent the numbers zero through 49 as a single cell character. The capital sign is not used at all. Oh you can string syllables written as lower signs together under certain circumstances. E. g. 49fctnt is how disinfectant is written in grade three. While the additional two-cell signs and short form words could be put into the tables of the BrailleNote, you would have serious difficulty with the multiple meanings of some lower signs and the omitted spaces between words, not to mention the omitted vowels, two-vowel signs which can have multiple meanings depending upon context, omitted vowels and outlined words. So writing a back translator from grade three to grade two or plain text would be nigh impossible because so many signs have multiple meanings depending upon context. I don't know Music Braille, but suffice it to say, neither does the BrailleNote and I don't know if it could learn it. I suppose you could create a partial implementation of grade three, maybe grade 2 and a half or two and three-quarters, and successfully back translate it, but it wouldn't be proper grade three Braille. There actually is a Braille Shorthand. It is written on a one-inch wide paper tape like what a court reporter uses in their Steno machine, except it is in Braille not print. The Braille Shorthand machine, model "J" made in England distinguishes between words and sentences by the width of the blank space between cells. While its embossed characters all occupy one cell each, it uses variable spacing between groups of characters to distinguish between a word and a sentence. And in speaking with someone who knows and has used it, Braille Shorthand makes Grade Three Braille look bulky! So an awful lot of work would have to go into a text to grade three Braille translator for the Mpower or PC and even more work would have to go into writing a back translator to convert grade three Braille into print text. While grade three is a wonderful code for making notes during college lectures or for personal reference material, it is not widely used so is seldom used for correspondence being sent to another Braille reader. I've studied grade three Braille a bit and once you get to know it, it is a true joy to read and write. But it certainly does have a lot of contractions! The Hadley School For the Blind, Winnetka, Illinois used to offer a course in grade three Braille but I'm not sure if it is still offered. You could call them at (800) 323-4238 and ask for Student Services and see if its still offered. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but someone has to tell you about the intricacies of grade three Braille. Brian Brian K. Lingard email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Skype: ve3yiab2ji15 tel: +1 (613) 247-0665 New York NY Tel +1 (646) 797-2862 FAX +1 (613) 247-9998 No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.10/943 - Release Date: 08/08/2007 5:38 PM ___ Replies to this message will go directly to the sender. If your reply would be useful to the list, please send a copy to the list as well. 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
