Dear HumanWare staff, BrailleNote users and others, This is Joseph Lee, a computer science student at University of California, Riverside. I'd like to thank HumanWare team for their continued effort in providing support and assurance for BrailleNote users around the world. As a college student with an interest in BrailleNote and other assistive technology solutions, I'd like to suggest a small program to perhaps allow us - students who are learning computer science and other programming-related fields - to try out writing programs for BrailleNote family of products. One of the usefulness of the BrailleNote is that there are facilities for running select type of programs and extensions offered by HumanWare and Sendero Group. At this stage, this includes applications that are run on the browser (via Javascript) and text adventure games (Inform interpreter), as well as GPS and Oxford Dictionary for KeySoft. While we feel that these methods of running programs (via web browser and through extensions) is sufficient at this time, there might need a time when we need specialized tasks that we want to see our BrailleNotes perform. These may include advanced calculations such as unit conversion and factorials, support for reading XLS files and so on. Even though we the programming students lack specific knowledge of how exactly KeySoft operates, maybe we could test our knowledge of programming (at least C++) and practice our skills on a device that is a tool to our education. With this in mind, I'd like to present a small proposal for at least allowing programming students to try out writing small native programs for KeySoft. This would have a number of benefits for both HumanWare and "future developers." First, it would provide an environment for students to practice our skills with friendly interface of KeySoft. Second, with help from students who are knowledgeable about BrailleNote, Humanware R&D team would find useful solutions to problems and suggestions quicker. Third, it would allow HumanWare engineers to become "our mentors" - providing support for future programming apprentices to gain insight into how software is developed under his or her fingertips (using a device that we love and use everyday to help us go through school). We'll make sure that the programs that we write with this interface (if implemented) would not only provide benefit to us in helping us learn more about programming, but would have useful quality that would benefit fellow users of BrailleNote family of products. Of course, if legality is involved (confidentiality), we the students will keep that in mind when using it. Thank you for your considerations. Hope to hear your response about this proposal. Sincerely, Joseph S. Lee University of California, Riverside
___ 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
