I do not think we will see a new version of the bn this year.
Remember that on the ks7.5 page, a comment was made, twice, that
the next release would be in fall of 2007? I do not trust any
timeframes put forth by hw. This is why the idea of status
messages from hw, brought up here a few weeks ago, is such a good
one; it would better tell us what is going on and would possibly
keep customers as they can watch, in very general snapshots, a
new bn being made and tested. As to the beta team not having
time, that seems to defeat the purpose of the beta cycle
altogether. This is why PUBLIC betas work so much better!!
Have a great day,
Alex
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joseph Lee" <[email protected]
To: <[email protected]
Date sent: Fri, 30 Jan 2009 00:19:56 -0800
Subject: [Braillenote] My thoughts on recent threads
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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