Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!yale!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman From: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org (Al Hoffman) Newsgroups: misc.handicap Subject: review Message-ID: <16161@bunker.UUCP> Date: 4 Dec 90 16:13:05 GMT Sender: wtm@bunker.UUCP Reply-To: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org Distribution: misc Organization: FidoNet node 1:109/143.0 - DARKNESS III, Falls Church VA Lines: 70 Approved: wtm@bunker.UUCP Index Number: 12245 [This is from the Blink Talk Conference] The following is a short review of PC-Braille Pro from Computer Arts in Boston. I just received my PC-Braille at work and its pretty good. I suppose some of you don't know what it is, so--its a software package that will let you change normal text files, and Word Perfect files, into several types of braille output, for several types of braille output devices. It has so many features its downright mind boggling. Anyway, as for translation quality, excellent. Speed, good. Formatting abilities, best I have seen (inbluding Duxbury.). Whats so great about this expensive package? It has it all. If you can do it with Duxbury, you can do it with PCBraille, and maybe better. I like the Duxbury products, but have not seen the very latest versions with the new formatter so I can't make a very good comparison yet. Anyway never mind my poor writing style here, if you are interested keep reading. Okay, what do you get? You get PcBraille, the translator, PC- Sift, and Wp-Sift, two formatting programs. You also get a program called REpeat that I'm not sure of the function yet. The translator runs off of command-line parms. For example, bt -a outfile.ext will only do an ascii print of the file you specifiy as input. this sounds simple, but in many situations its great--such as when brailling code. I use a led-120, and the printer setup part of Pc-Braille is great. Yes, Duxbury also works with the LED, but its not as straightforward. bt -2 (the default) ifile ofile give grade 2 braille, while bt -0 will give Computer Braille, that irritating stuff NLS or somebody dreamed up to ocnfuse us braille readers. bt -1 gives grade 1 for some useless reason, butr I suppose somebody actually reads it. The Formatters are wonderful, nearly perfect, and being improved all the time. The best feature I have seen so far is this-- Wp-Sift is the formatting program that accepts WP files, and then formats them as best as is possible for braille. It has a feature that uses the WP v5.1 "note," feature to allow the user to put in formatting codes in places in the print text, so they are not seen in the print text without the reveal codes function. What you get is the ability to mark up your text for the braille translator, while leaving the text fine for WP printing, or later transmission to a coworker. This is truely an outstanding feature. An example of its use is a text containing lots of computer coding you can include a comment to change to ascii braille (for the coede), and then at the end another comment to revert to the previous translation mode. All the reader needs to do then is find the offending code sections and mark them, he can then change them, delete them, etc. and the markers will be their for the later format step. Okay, more later as I play and find more to tell. Have fun. -- Uucp: ..!{decvax,oliveb}!bunker!hcap!hnews!109!143.0!Al.Hoffman Internet: Al.Hoffman@p0.f143.n109.z1.fidonet.org