On 12 Aug 2011, at 00:55, Alex Bec wrote: > Up until 9.1, in the Braille Terminal, the QT models were forced to > operate as Perkins keyboards using the home row, so both models were > essentially behaving in a similar way. With 9.1 the QT was allowed to > operate as a QT so as to improve the user experience with the recent > versions of JAWS that support this. Unfortunately, this had the > unintended consequences that you didn't fail to notice and that we > somehow failed to foresee at that time.
I think I speak for all QT users in this frustrating position when I say that I'm very glad you've put this on record. It's a pity this wasn't done sooner. This is an important lesson in backward compatibility, too; do it where you must to interoperate. In my other life I do work in the IETF, where I have come to understand that while it is often important to have new features and a clean start (think IPv6), it's also important not to deliberately break interoperability with existing implementations of older protocols when one can possibly help it, because the users are not to blame for the forward march of technology and will see only a failure to interoperate, and rightfully so. Given that the software was all the change necessary to cause the break, a word of warning would have been a great help. > So as far as Apple is concerned, yes, if they could extend their driver > to support the enhanced Braille terminal protocol with pass through of > QT commands, then that would work "as well" as on JAWS. I believe the > specs of the protocol have been exchanged and/or are quite open > standards, so it's a matter of time for this to happen. But it's indeed > up to Apple to do this part, as pointed by Dominic, and this applies to > GW Micro and others. As for brltty and brlAPI, I suspect these are open > projects that could get updated too with a bit of work. We will need the protocol specification. We'd be glad if you could make it available. > In the meantime, on our side, we've restored a way to get the QT to > operate in Perkins mode in the Braille Terminal so that it should behave > the way it was pre-9.1. It is in the pipe, and here again, just a matter > of patience before it is available to you, and eventually, you'll be > able to select whichever mode works best with your (changing) > environment, and get the most of it. Thank effing goodness for that. Please think carefully before changing "The contract" again. You can and should include a protocol version number in your protocol, so that future changes of this type can be made transparent to the user, because the highest negotiated protocol version number can be used. Cheers, Sabahattin ___ 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
