May I be nosy, Eleni: why do you maintain a DOS machine? Are we talking about a genuine boot-into-DOS-6 machine, or a Vista or XP machine with a command prompt? Are you using a hardware synthesizer?
I update WebbIE every couple of months, time permitting. If you have a particular site that isn't working, do let me know and I'll try to have a look at it, if not manage to fix it. Best wishes, Alasdair On Sun, Jul 25, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hello Alasdair, > > Thank you so much for that wonderful explanation. I actually just > found a text editor/word processor called VDE. > > http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,53873-page,1-c,wordprocessing/description.html > > It's features and usage are incredible, and if it works with a > screen reader, then I'll definitely be using it from now on on my DOS > machine. It actually has options for saving and loading text in > various formats, including unformatted (with one varient being used to > open and/or save files in NotePad's format), ascii, MS Word through > 97, Word Perfect 4-6, Word Star and a few more. This program's > functions can be customised but in the default settings can be > accessed either via a menu bar or via Word Star commands. Seriously, > I can't believe the power of this little editor! It even works on > Windows 95/98 machines. I just hope it's accessible. If so, then > I'll be reviewing it here later. > > As for the Greek, unfortunately, I can only read and write it in > Windows. Even though there are newer editors and browsers in DOS that > can handle Unicode, I don't have a Greek synthesizer. > > Talk soon, > Eleni > PS. I adore WebbIE but are there any plans of updating it? It no > longer works on certain webpages. > > On 7/25/10, Alasdair King <alasdairk...@gmail.com> wrote: >> There are two unrelated issues here. >> >> 1 How characters are encoded in the file - ANSI, DBCS and so on. >> 2 How newlines are encoded. >> >> Newlines first. There is no consistent "newline" character (indicating >> the end of a line) as there is for the character "a". Instead, Windows >> and MS-DOS uses two characters - carriage return CR, 10, and line feed >> LF, 13. But Unix (and Apple Mac) uses one character - line feed LF, >> 13. So a text file can be in Windows/MS-DOS encoding or Unix encoding. >> If you open a Unix text file in Notepad you'll find that the newlines >> are missing and the whole thing is one big lump of text. WordPad is >> smarter and realises the single LF characters should be newlines, so >> you don't see this happen. >> >> So if you have a Unix text file - no newlines in Notepad - then you >> can open it in WordPad and then save it as Text or MS-DOS Text and >> it'll then work correctly in Notepad and DOS. At this point I'm going >> to admit that I can't tell why there are two WordPad Save As Text >> options. They both produce Windows/MS-DOS format ANSI text files. >> >> Now, character encodings. This is even more complicated. Essentially, >> old-style ANSI can give you those files with lots of question marks >> and the wrong characters. Use Unicode, which means using the UTF-8 or >> the Unicode setting in Notepad or WordPad. Both are Unicode, but >> different ways of encoding it - when Windows says "Unicode" is often >> means "DBCS". But anyway, Notepad can do either type, as can WordPad. >> Here are two files with Greek in them, one in the "Unicode" format, >> one in UTF8. Both work in Notepad: >> http://development.webbie.org.uk/test/text/Text-Unicode.txt >> http://development.webbie.org.uk/test/text/Text-UTF8.txt >> >> Here's a detailed explanation, though some of the text is displayed >> using images: >> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/Unicode.html >> >> So I think you should be able to use WordPad to open any file then >> save it as Unicode, and all should then be well for Windows machines. >> For MS-DOS pre-Windows machines you'll need to save as ANSI, which >> means setting the code page of your machine to the language you want >> to support - Greek, for example - and accepting that files with >> Unicode and non-Greek character will be mangled on your system. >> >> Best wishes, >> Alasdair King >> WebbIE >> >> On Sat, Jul 24, 2010 at 12:42 AM, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> So today, I decided to see how Word Perfect 5.1 and Ed.exe would >>> read files saved as .txt in Notepad and .txt (MS-DOS format) in >>> Wordpad. The only difference that I noticed is that the lines started >>> and stopped at different points so that a sentence that began on one >>> line in one format might have already begun on the line above that in >>> the other. In both cases, VocalEyes didn't read the sentences >>> properly in Ed.exe. The words at the end of each line would cut off. >>> But in Word Perfect 5.1, it read the lines perfectly. I'm baffled by >>> this, since Ed is from Word Perfect Corporation and even uses the same >>> commands as 5.1. The only difference is that it saves as .txt and not >>> as .wpd and it doesn't convert the .txt files to .wpd when you open >>> them. I then checked the settings in VocalEyes in both programs and >>> they were the same. >>> >>> I'm completely confused here. Why is it doing this? I would gladly >>> use NoteWorthy, as I love that program, but the file was too large for >>> it to handle. I'd like to try Microsoft Word 5.5, but for some >>> reason, it's only downloadable as an .exe file and it's over 1.44mb. >>> The DOS machine that I'm using right now only has a floppy drive (the >>> pcmcia slot is taken up by the KeyNote Voicecard synth, which I won't >>> remove unless absolutely necessary) so I have no way of getting the >>> program on there. It also doesn't have the regular editor that's >>> supposed to come with MS-DOS 6.21 and I can't seem to find that >>> anywhere! I on't even know if it's accessible. Can anyone help me or >>> recommend another editor for me to try? Should I use JAWS or ASAP to >>> see if I get different results or are the settings in the program >>> rather than in the screen reader? >>> >>> Thanks, >>> Eleni >>> >>> On 7/14/10, Eleni Vamvakari <magkis...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> Last night, I went to >>>> >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_file#Formats >>>> >>>> and still don't completely understand this. >>>> >>>> "Most Windows text files use a form of ANSI, OEM or Unicode encoding. >>>> What Windows terminology calls "ANSI encodings" are usually >>>> single-byte ISO-8859 encodings, except for in locales such as Chinese, >>>> Japanese and Korean that require double-byte character sets. ANSI >>>> encodings were traditionally used as default system locales within >>>> Windows, before the transition to Unicode. By contrast, OEM encodings, >>>> also known as MS-DOS code pages, were defined by IBM for use in the >>>> original IBM PC text mode display system. They typically include >>>> graphical and line-drawing characters common in full-screen MS-DOS >>>> applications. Newer Windows text files may use a Unicode encoding such >>>> as UTF-16LE or UTF-8." >>>> >>>> So, what's the difference between a Windows and a DOS .txt file. >>>> Does it matter, when reading with a DOS text editor or wordprocessor, >>>> whether I saved the file with Notepad as .txt or saved it with Wordpad >>>> as .txt (MS-DOS format)? If not, then why does Wordpad have a MS-DOS >>>> format option? I'm pretty sure that Notepad doesn't use unicode >>>> because I can't save Greek files with it and always have to use >>>> Wordpad and save them as rtf. I know that files saved as either type >>>> of .txt will read under Word Perfect and NoteWorthy but WP (including >>>> the text editor) acts strangely with VocalEyes at times, not reading >>>> complete lines and sometimes skipping lines, and I'm trying to find >>>> out why it does this. I've installed the set files for Word Perfect >>>> Office, hoping that it would solve this problem, but it hasn't done >>>> so. Interestingly enough, it doesn't do this with all files. I >>>> thought that perhaps it was word wrap, but apparently, it's >>>> automatically set to on, so that might not be the case. I need this >>>> sorted so that I can decide how to save my documents that I'll be >>>> transferring over to the DOS machine, or if it's not the formatting, >>>> then I need to learn what changes have to be made either in VocalEyes >>>> or in Word perfect so that it reads properly.. I'm currently using a >>>> KeyNote Gold laptop, which doesn't have the built-in MS-DOS editor, so >>>> I can't test my files there and NoteWorthy can't handle large files. >>>> I need to save the tutorials that I found for QuickBASIC and for batch >>>> programming, so the sooner this can be resolved the better. >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> Eleni >>>> >>> >>> For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: >>> http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ >>> >> >> >> >> -- >> Alasdair King >> >> For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: >> http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ >> > > For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: > http://www.jaws-users.com/help/ > -- Alasdair King For answers to frequently asked questions about this list visit: http://www.jaws-users.com/help/
