Hi folks, Well, it seems that this exciting news about KeySoft 8.0 has generated quite a traffic here. I've also read subsequent comments to this press release and so far noticed that it was centered around Word Support and OS upgrade. Well, here are my own opinions and comments: * The reason for end of support for Classics, in my opinion, is because of rarity of PDA's using MIPS processors, as well as development efforts involved for two separate CPU architectures - MIPS and ARM families. There are some code that works with MIPS, while some works better with ARM and its derivatives, including Strong aRM (PK) and X-Scale (mPower). Although it would be beneficial for the company to support Classic users (from users' perspective), for programming complexity reasons, plus the fact that MIPS and ARM family use different instruction sets and time taken to compiling the KeySoft source code (I'm not going to reveal which programming language was used to write the source code) for two different architectures would be, in my opinion, the cause of demise of Classics, which endured seven years of development (from KeySoft 4.0 up to now). Rather than waste valuable resources on compiling KeySoft source code to two different CPU instruction sets (which could cause compatibility issues), HW engineers might have decided to just "unify" the code base - choosing ARM architecture over MIPS, which is present on PK and mPower to save time and other resources, specifically machinery involved. I personally view that it is someone of a good idea to unify the compilation target, but I also believe that, if a device has potential to be used for a long time (which is one of the characteristics of embedded devices), then I feel that at least a beneficial patch for KeySoft (at least a downloadable driver or something) could be, and should be implemented (I'm talking about BookShare access). * Personally, I feel that this is not the right time to judge a software. How could a user judge a program when just a preview portrait was released? And how would a user report on what's goon and what's bad about a program without even using it? The best time to grade KeySoft 8.0 is, in my opinion, around convention time in July - after the software has been used for several monthgs and many users had a go with it. For instance, I personally don't know how KeyChat works because it is not released yet. So my humble advice (also from a college student) is that we should wait until the "real" thing is released - then I think we could have some kind of a party or something to assess KeySoft 8.0. (Which does gives me a reason for a sixth BrailleNote Chat this yer...) * As for beta testing, we cannot really attribute all errors found to the Beta team. I believe the Beta testing team might have had short time to test the software (in case of KS7.5) - thus could not have detected bugs. My own personal opinion with the Beta cycle is that a "complete" or almost complete tour of this new software should be done so that more bugs can be detected and notified. Also, there are bugs which cannot be detected easily - a simple programming mistake, such as declaring wrong class or using wrong statement could have produced wrong results (Ray, Alex, can you help me explain this in more detail? I'm just a freshman learning these things so I have no experience there...). These kind of mistake can only be fixed through careful observation of the feature that the offending code "describes" i.e. a source code that enables this bug - thus explaining why it takes time to find and fix these kinds of bugs. A notable hypothetical example might be translation issue where the next character entered after a period would be treated as computer braille character. I think that could have been a mistake with the source code (I thik the "if" statement was not implemented properly, but could be wrong), at least in my thinking. * As for OS upgrade, I did say that it takes long time to think of strategies to implement new features introduced with the new operating system. Also, the development of KeySoft under this new operating system takes time, especially if it involves writing routines for smooth transition from old OS to new OS via upgrade process (I think that was the biggest issue when performing upgrade from KeySoft 5.1 to 6.1). Also, if an operating system's internal workings are different from what the programmers were used to, then it takes extra time for the engineers to grasp the concepts employed by the new OS, as well as to think of ways to design KeySoft so that it takes advantage of this new OS. This is the reason why I wrote (in previous correspondences regarding OS upgrade) that compatibility between the new OS and keysoft.exe would be the one impeding the release of new KeySoft running on a new OS, such as Windows Embedded CE 6.0. I and others have outlined what's new with that operating system many times, so I won't to that gain here. * If you recall, there was a "sensational" post last year about a supposed new hardware revision of the BrailleNote "scheduled" to be launch this year (the presentation from Mr. Pepin last year confirmed this suspicion, if I remember correctly). Here's what I can think about this new hardware: I'm positive that it would be another, yet bigger version of BrailleNote PK; in other words, containing the new OS in ROM image. If this last sentence turns out to be true, then the earliest timeframe for the announcement of OS upgrade for the PK and mPower would be around either third quarter of this year or towards end of this year. I think that announcement about OS upgrade will determine the fate of HumanWare and its users - and have a big impact on blindness community, particularly if the press release says that BN will use the new OS, and if this new OS is Windows Embedded CE 6.0 (BrailleNote might be the first device of its kind to have Windows Mobile 7 technology then). So, my advice is this: don't lose hope. I'm sure an announcement will be made which will surprise us, but at the same time gives us confort and pride. Since I've already posted this, so I won't go into my own hypotheses on what new features of KeySoft would tie into CE 6.0 (I'm thinking of perhaps Word 2007 support). That's all I have. Sorry for ths length of this post. If there were comments that were hard to understand, my apologies. I hope the post would be beneficial to everyone here on this list. If you want to write to me privately, it's up to you (I welcome suggestions and criticisms...). Thanks. Cheers, Joseph Lee University of California, Riverside
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