Grade 2 has nothing to do with ASCII. Grade 2 is a six-dot system. Plain and
simple. Anything which raises dots 7 or 8 is just plain wrong.
I suspect this is an error which never made any difference until now because
the translation programs are intended for embossers which never use dots 7
and 8 (unless perhaps in some graphics mode). Now that they are being
applied to 8-dot displays the error is apparent.
The reference to BANA in Patrick Burke's message quoted below was the result
of confusion. He was thinking of computer Braille instead of grade 2
literary Braille.
To fix the error is simple. The authors of the grade 2 translator need only
to change the symbols used in translation. Translate o w to left curly
bracket instead of left square bracket, and the same for the other 5
mis-translated symbols.
Or, for computer users, do what I did and change your display to six-dot
mode. But turn off the expansion of the current word so you can see capitals
correctly.
Hmm. I wonder if there are any embossers that will stop if they receive a
left curly bracket?
Note that I'm trying to stick to international naming conventions here; the
British don't like braces, though the blind may have been converted by
JFW... :-)
-----Original Message-----
From: Doug Lee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sunday, May 09, 1999 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: Grade 2
>I believe the reason for the symbols being the way they are has to do with
>the way ASCII is organized. The capital letters, which are dotted in
>8-dot Braille also, precede the lower-case letters in the ASCII table.
>Thus, so do the dotted symbols. So as someone already proposed, JAWS is
>only following existing precedent, the preferences of the masses for a
>different precedent notwithstanding. :-)
>
>The rest of this message is a partial quote for which the attribution
>vanished in a flurry of editing performed by yours truly...
>
>> As far as I know, these symbols are defined that way by BANA or somebody
in
>> the
>> Braille code world. Either they had a good reason at the time which has
never
>> been clear to me, or they found some really good drugs while making the
>> decision. Anyway, the definitions are reversed from what we would expect,
>> e.g.,
>> <left-bracket> is dots 2.4.6.7, but shift-<left-bracket> is 2.4.6. The
Braille
>> translation programs all do this as well.
>
>-
>Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
-
Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
