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From: raman@elli.cs.cornell.edu (T. V. Raman)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: Re: TeX and Braille
Keywords: braille.sty, braille.300pk, braille.tfm
Message-ID: <52451@cornell.UUCP>
Date: 25 Feb 91 20:24:02 GMT
References: <1991Feb21.163517.6563@maths.tcd.ie> <1991Feb22.201926.9560@ioe.lon.ac.uk> <1991Feb25.170722.4504@irisa.fr>
Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP
Reply-To: raman@cs.cornell.edu (T. V. Raman)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 60

In article <1991Feb25.170722.4504@irisa.fr> delaunay@irisa.fr (Christophe Delaunay) writes:
>Hi!
>
>In article <1991Feb22.201926.9560@ioe.lon.ac.uk> teexdwu@ioe.lon.ac.uk (DOMINIK WUJASTYK) writes:
>>In article <1991Feb21.163517.6563@maths.tcd.ie> tim@maths.tcd.ie (Timothy Murphy) writes:
>>>
>>>A friend asked me:
>>>Does anybody use TeX to transcribe mathematics into braille math ?
>>>
>>>But I'd be interested to learn on any use  of TeX with Braille,
>>>particularly in conjunction with mathematics.
>>
>>There does exist a Braille font for TeX.  I think it is just PK files
>>at 300 dpi, which may mean that it is derived from some other
>>font format, not done in Metafont.  The bad news is that I can't 
>>remember where I saw it.  It was a listserv in Germany, perhaps
>>dhdurz1, but perhaps not.  Could anyone be more specific?
>>
>>As I recall, the font was not a math font, but text.
>>
>>Dominik
>
>Sure.  I obtained this package from our local TeX specialist but I don't
>know where he got it from.  The package he gave me is compounded of
>three files: two font definition files and a ".sty" file for printing
>the text in a correct Braille format.  Problem: The version I have
>doesn't seem to translate LaTeX math symbols into Braille ones.  I'm
>interested by this package to print LaTeX documents into Braille for me,
>(I'm blind), and a small group of blind and non-blind people.
>Personnally, I like LaTeX for making my document because, in "normal
>cases", I don't have to worry a lot about my document presentation.  By
>normal cases, I mean text documents and no slides, graphics or some
>letters that need a special presentation.  It's much easier for me to
>make nice looking documents with LaTeX than with other text processors
>like troff, Word5 or Wordstar.  The Braille font will allow us to print
>a same document either in Braille or in an ordinary format.  The
>package I have seems just fine for us because we don't often need math
>fonts.  The problem is that I couldn't experiment it yet because we
>have a Braille printer but we are looking for a PC!  I was told that we
>may have one soon.
>
>Christophe.  e-mail: delaunay@irisa.irisa.fr


Could you  send me more information about the files you speak of?
What exactly can these files generate given a complicated tex
document?  Does it generate  simple grade 1 Braille, or does it know
about grade 2 contractions etc?

I would be interested in any information  people could  give me about
this or any related subject.

I use a talking terminal to interact with my computer, and also
Braille for class notes,  but personally use Braille very little.

--Raman
|			      T.V.Raman                                       |
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