2011-06-30 18:20:08

I think I'm finding some bugs.
I tried to type that, question mark, and it turned out as this
my conclusion is that it put the his andthe that together as  a[45]w instead of parsing the question mark correctly.
and I'm trying totype this post using the latest version, so there you are.
Eh, I definitely like having th, even withthe little problems. Considering how fast this came tgr, this is pretty well doto
inin and this should start with an asterisk. lol

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-06-30 19:07:32

Devinprater, download the program again and you shouldn't experience that error anymore.

CAE_Jones, thanks for the tips.  I wasn't aware about the "bled" rule for #d, and I'll be sure to put it in.  Can you explain, with a little more detail, the stuff about low f and low j?  These are things that the Wikipedia page didn't explain.  I'm pretty sure I can make it work with all of the rules, as long as I, myself, understand them haha.  I guess that's the hard part.

Your last post was a little confusing.  If possible, put some quotations around the specific words that you're referring to, lol.  I had trouble reading the post because it could technically have been read a few different ways.  Feedback, like yours, is very helpful though since it is the only way I'm going to be able to weed out all of the bugs.  What does the "asterisk" part mean?

- Aprone
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2011-06-30 19:24:54

Nope, still there.
Run-time error '429':

ActiveX component can't create object

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2011-06-30 19:32:39

Devinprater, there is a file called "debuglog.txt" in the program's folder.  Can you paste it's contents here for me to see?

- Aprone
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2011-06-30 19:40:48

Starting program
Aprone disabled DirectSound in this version.
Sound finished.
Version is 0.5b
Sapi is set to 0
Loading settings/progress
Startup finished.

Devin Prater
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2011-06-30 20:23:41

Devinprater, open the "progress.ini" file and change the first number from 0 to 1.  Save the file and try the program again.  If this solves the error, then it means it was due to your broken sapi, lol.

- Aprone
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2011-06-30 21:14:07

If the address is still
http://www.kaldobsky.com/audiogames/virtualbrailler.zip
I downloaded it and there was no progress.ini file. I'll try downloading it again and looking.

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2011-06-30 21:46:07 (edited by CAE_Jones 2011-06-30 21:55:41)

I don't have a progress.ini file, either.

The asterisk bit is much less important than everything else, but basically two "in"s (3-5, 3-5) in a row is an asterisk in grade2. Definitely one of the weirder ones, I think.

Low f (2-3-5) and low j (3-5-6) use pretty much every possible context to get milage.
Hm, actually, looking at the program, it seems like you're missing a lot of the dropped letter variations. This would be a good time to find out that Pun BB supports tables.

I'll just make a list, even though I expect you've already found most of this somewhere.

  • 1 / dot 2 = ea everywhere but the end of a word, where it's a comma. (This seems to work just fine).

  • 2 / dots 2-3 = be at the beginning of words, bb in the middle of words, and a semicolon at the end of words. It looks like you got most of the contractions with this one, too.

  • 3 / dots 2-5 = con at the start of words, cc in the middle, and colon at the end.

  • 4 / dots 2-5-6 = dis at the start of words, dd in the middle of words, and a period at the end of words.

  • 5 / 2-6 = en, unless it's by itself, in which case it's enough. (This works fine)

  • 6 / 2-3-5 = at the start of a word, it means the word to comes before it--the space is actually left out. In the middle of words it's ff, and at the end it's an exclamation point.

  • 7 / dots 2-3-5-6 = By itself, it's the word "were". At the beginning of a word, it's an open parenthesis (. In the middle of words, it's gg, and at the end it's a closing parenthesis). I can see this one being tricky to code for the endings because multiple punctuation is possible...

  • 8 / dots2-3-6 = By itself, the word "his". At the start of words, an opening quote. I don't think it's valid in the middle of words, but... eh, who knows... and is a question mark at the end of words.

  • 9 / dots3-5 = in. In all contexts.

  • 0 / dots 3-5-6 = By itself, the word "was". At the beginning of a word, the word "by"--the space is omitted in braille. And at the end of a word, it's a closing quote.

I think you got most of that right. I tested some of them as I was typing it. The (gg), to/ff/! and was / by" seem to be incomplete, though.

Is it helpful for me to just keep typing random sentences to try and break it? lol
I got this:
"this had tobe a test ofthe w's grtest [45]wsto"
When it should have been:
"This had to be a test of the world's greatest words!"
Grade2 braille likes to make it legal to leave out spaces as much as possible. I'm sure that if so many words didn't start with "in", they'd've made it so that you could have left out hte space between "in" and words. Makes me wonder why "out of the" wasn't officially shortened to be spaceless...

[edit] Looking at it some more, it seems like you included most contractions, but didn't make it possible to combine some of htem as parts of words, for instance, blunder can use the contraction for under. Words like spiritual, worldly, sometimes, etc all use contractions.[/edit]

[edit2] ... I just now realized that the reason "ht" pops up so easily for me is probably because you practically never have to write "th" as two separate letters in braille. ... That might be reason enough on its own to make me use the virtual brailler more often. big_smile [/edit2]

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-07-01 00:50:17

I probably should have been more clear, sorry.  What I meant, is that in the program you're already using there is a progress.ini file.  It is generated when you first run the program.  Well I suppose if the program crashes right away, that file wouldn't have ever been created, hmmm.  Create a text file named "Progress.ini" in the virtual braille folder, press 1, enter, 3, enter, and 1, enter.  It will be 3 lines, reading 1 3 1 each on its own line.  Save the file, and hopefully that fixes your error.

CAE_Jones, those tips are Very helpful!  I'm especially pleased with the side by side sentences showing what it said, versus what it was supposed to say.  The original Wikipedia article made it sound like the contractions weren't assembled like some of your examples, but I'm sure you're right since the article wasn't very complete, and because it makes complete sense to combine them to help shorten things.  I'll add that to my list of changes I need to make.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-07-01 10:36:12

I tried something longer this time. smile

Once upon a t, there was a little ch nd SY, who enjoyed many kinds of sentences.
(should be) Once upon a time, there was a little child named Sally, who enjoyed many kinds of sentences.
Now and ag, she would go tothe country store tolisten tothe ditoerent sentences of all the travelers.
(Should be) - Now and again, she would go to the country store to listen to the different sentences of all the travelers.
S of them came from many ditoerent ps ofthe w, and they sts said things in interesting ways.
(should be) - Some of them came from many different parts of the world, and they sometimes said things in interesting ways.
O young lord who was quiet rich, said that his father loved towander beyond the bounds ofthe realm tosearch for more gold.
(should be) - One young lord who was quite rich, said that his father loved to wander beyond the bounds of the realm to search for more gold.
O d, SY's mother wanted tosell some ful her fresh weaving, and show -
(Should be) - One day, Sally's mother wanted to sell some of her fresh weaving, and somehow-
and then I got bored, and Daytona bought things with magicY generated gold. The ss gg not very happy.
(should be) - and then I got bored, and Daytona bought things with magically generated gold. The spirits were not very happy.

So, some more work for you smile
- dot 6 followed by y at the end of a word makes "ally"
- It seems that capitalization or punctuation prevents some contractions from being interpreted correctly
- Dot six followed by n at the end of a word makes "ation".
- I think you're missing ch (1-6) by itself = "child"

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-07-01 17:00:15

Wow.  Thanks, once again, CAE_Jones.  I didn't work on the virtual brailler at all for the last 2 days, but when I get back to it, I certainly have a ton of little fixes to do!  You're right about the capitalization or punctuation messing up some of the contractions.  When skimming through the code I noticed that the way I did one of the parts is causing that problem.  The good news is that I know what I need to fix, so it is just a matter of me having the time to make the changes.

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-12-05 07:32:58

Hi Aprone,
I just found this thing a while ago. I really like what you've done so far. Hopefully the huge amount of issues can be fixed and it can be a really neat little program to braille with on a PC. I know Duxbury Braille Translator allows you to have braille input exactly like this.
As to whether the theory of being able to braille faster than type is true. I actually tested it once, about five years ago I think. So I probably improved since then. Brailling on a computer keyboard isn't the same though, so once you take that into consideration it could change things. I'm fluent in both braille and QWERTY. Braille as we know is so much more varied than typing is. It all depends on how many contractions you have in what you're writing. I guess I could say that typing is faster if you're a really good touch typist. But, for one-handed typing, which I have done quite a bit on both layouts, braille at least for me is faster. One handed mode slows it down somewhat, so if you can go without, it helps.
But back to VB. The alternate key layout is very helpful. And as someone said, if these issues were resolved, and there was a way to use VB in any edit field, it would definitely be cool. Even if it doesn't get any more updates, it's at least something to play with.

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2011-12-05 15:43:37

I had made a Joystick configuration for it at one point, but I think it disappeared somehow. It wasn't quite so easy to use, though, since the buttons on the controller aren't arranged like a braille keyboard.
I might try to remake it whenever I get back to where my controllers are.
You know, I think I'd use this more if I made it easier to access, like with a desktop icon or a shortcut key.

Actually, I think one of the things that makes using a braille keyboard different from using a qwerty keyboard in braille mode is finger placement. Every braille keyboard I've used has either bigger keys, or keys that are farther apart than those on a qwerty keyboard.
Granted, the key layouts of the Perkens brailler, the Braille 'n Speak and the Braille Light are all different, but the differences aren't quite as jarring as virtualizing on a qwerty.
(And as a random sidenote, it's taking me way too long to type qwerty, considering that the letters are all in a row...)

Heh, but I still am very glad that we have this program, and it's among the things I'd be excited to see Aprone get back to at some point. smile

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-12-16 00:12:50

Computer braille is a special set of braille for web addresses, email addresses, technical terms, stuff like that. Here is most of what you need to know.
All words are made with no contractions.
Capital letters are usually made by adding a dot 7 to the letter, like dots 1-7 is a capital A. THere is also a dot 8 used in characters about about 125 in the ascii system. DOt 7 is to the left of dot 3, and dot 8 is to the right of dot 6
All numbers have no number sign before then and are lower letters a-j.
low a = 1
low b = 2
low c = 3
low d = 4
etc
Punctuation is where things get tricky
. 4-6
, 6
? 1-4-5-6
; 5-6
| 1-2-5-6
\ 1-2-5-6-7
: 1-5-6
- 3-6
_ 4-5-6
* 1-6
& 1-2-3-4-6
# 3-4-5-6
@ 4-7
` 4
~ 5-6-7 (This is one I'm not sure about, because rarely anyone uses it)
! 2-3-4-6
$ 1-2-4-6
^ 4-5-7
( 1-2-3-5-6
) 2-3-4-5-6
+ 3-4-6
[ 2-4-6-7
] 1-2-4-5-6-7
{ 2-4-6
} 1-2-4-5-6
Don't ask meabout those last 4. They are as baffling to me as they will be to you when you realize the skewed logic.
' 3
/ 3-4
> 3-4-5
< 1-2-6
" 5
Sorry if these aren't in any order.
Special computer braille symbols
4-5-6, 3-4-6 begin computer braille code indicator
4-5-6, 1-5-6 end computer braille code indicator
4-5-6, 3-4-5 caps lock on
4-5-6, 1-2-6 caps lock off
4-5-6, 1-2-3-4-6 computer braille continuation indicator (in case it spans more than 1 line. YOu will probably not need to put this in, but it's here for reference for all who are curious)
Most people call this grqade 0, so if you use the same keystroke conventions, then put it as 0 on the keyboard.

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2011-12-16 09:22:17

hi,
wow that is... strange. i must ad mit i haven't read braille in a long time.
i prefore using a screen reader.
it is justeasyer.

I'm gone for real :)

2011-12-16 16:27:43

Something that sighted people seem to do that is hard with a screen reader is have music playing while they do other things.
Though I'm sure there are some people who have somehow managed to have music playing and a screen reader running without issue, I find it pretty difficult to have music at a volume that makes it worth playing and use a screenreader for anything complex.
Actually, I've found that sometimes music helps me work on tedious things, particularly programming, so I'll sometimes have media player up and have a braille display hooked up (and sometimes put NVDA on silent... I did a lot of converting DLE to bgt this way).

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-12-20 17:05:44

so I'm trying to use the virtual brailller and a controlller to type th. X's not very qk, but should I upload the configur'n anyway?

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2011-12-20 21:37:23

Sure, I'm sure people will get a kick out of trying it.  smile

- Aprone
Please try out my games and programs:
Aprone's software

2011-12-20 23:25:29

Here's the joy2key configuration file (get Joy2Key here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16520690/jtk374en.zip):
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/16520690/braille.cfg
Put the config file in the same folder as joyToKey.exe and have your controler connected before starting the program.
I configured it with a playstation controler in mind, so the buttons are like this:

directions = arrow keys (doesn't seem to work with NVDA)
L2 = dot 1
L1 = dot2
Square = dot 3
R2 = dot4
R1 = dot5
Triangle = Dot6
circle = backspace
x = space
start = enter
select = use player2 controls
Player2:
up = page up
down = page down
left = home
right = end
l2 = control
l1 = tab
r2 = alt
r1 = I don't remember, h?
triangle = escape
circle = shift
x = V
square = c

I tried to make my last post using only the controler, but I think I did wind up grabbing the arrows on my keyboard for a moment.

看過來!
"If you want utopia but reality gives you Lovecraft, you don't give up, you carve your utopia out of the corpses of dead gods."
MaxAngor wrote:
    George... Don't do that.

2012-01-08 09:49:53

Hi, I wonder if you could import BRLTTY into your virtual brailler, so that we can use braille displays to actually input text? One feature that NVDA lcks for now is braille input. This is one feature that like all other screen readers have, so I'd love to see a program that can do braille input. And Brltty could o the conversion stuff from text to braille and stuff too, so you wn't have to work on the exceptions and suff in braile, and you could use al of brltty's brailleables and stuff.

Devin Prater
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2012-05-30 12:26:59

Hi.
I was looking forward to trying this out.
unforchanetly it would seem that UK braille is differnet from US braille.
for example.
dot five t. = time
doesn't work but dot five l = lord does
also. th =there or, this i forget wich one
ch =child
wh =which
hmm lets see if i can rite a sentence using this brailler program in grade 2.
I tryed to rite the time is 2 o clock but i couldn't do it.
program seems slow.
although i am using a whireless keyboard so that could be it. not sure.
It really would be nice to have a braille program because then we could right all we want in braille or on the keyboard in print  letters.

I'm gone for real :)

2012-05-30 15:44:27

brad.
this is contracted braille, its different from expanded braille where whole words are written.
though i don't know what's the difference between grade 1 and grade 2 braille since i'm not sure in what context are they sorted, but english braille is same everywhere, whether contracted or expanded.
here in india, most of the blind people who use braille as a medium of reading and writing, use a braille slate to write.
it is made of 2 plastic rectangular slabs, one at the bottom has a series of continued six whole cells engraved downwards, and the top side has a grid like fformation which fits into the areas between cells, both vertically and horizontally, and it also has slight tiny bulges in vertical portions of the grid cell so that its easier to form a grip and then write using a braille paper (slightly thicker then normal paper).
the paper is fitted between the 2 slabs, having locks at the border of the slate to help paper not running out.
the matter is then written using a stylus with pointed end and a cap which comfortably rests between fingers.
when the page is full, its expelled out and a new page is continued, and so on.
nowadays, some blind people have started using braillers instead of the slate, because one of the disadvantages  of the slate being that the paper has to be turned upside down in order to read anything, while using the brailler machine a person can read whatever he has written exactly on the top side and as soon as a word is written, which makes their lives more easier.
there is also another advantage, speed, because in standard braille slate here letter by letter has to be written seperately with each individual dot pressed manually, and the brailer machine prints the whole letter at once saving a lot of time.
heh, its a very long story, i'm using braille since right when i started going to preparatory school, it was a blind school only though.
i used braille in almost every work till around 2006, after that i bought a brailler, just hoping that it would make it easier to work in higher classes, but a few months later, a big change was struck.
the PC's became cheap drastically here, causing me to go ahead and buy it because of the encouragement from a lot of other sources as well,
and after that the braille has almost vanished from my life..
all the course books, assignments, notes, even online exams, everything, is now digitalized, i mean computerized.
and with regional languages screen readers like safa, (for reading indian languages like hindi, punjabi, gujarati, etc., its even easier to write a hindi doccument work on computer rather then braille.
even a few years ago, braille books were the only thing that i had to rely throughout the year for studying and exams, but now the letter "E" has taken place of those books.
every subject, everything, available on pdf with jaws support probably.
hec, that's not even enough of it, the assignments and notes that i had to make in braille after  borrowing  someone's notebook, they are all done on PC and stored and saved and
god knows what else.

i'm familiarized with english braille here so well that, after a few years of discontinuation, i've not forgotten a single bit about it, in fact, all of my thoughts of mind which are conveyed by words, has taken a shape of braille itself.
for example, if you hear the word "dog", the reactions given by the mind may be different, but in my case,  the braille written word "dog" comes first and then comes the picture of an animal with stripped hairs and things.
it almost became a part of what you call a subcontious mind, you know.

however, that's not enough, even some of the blind persons have adapted to laptop, and that pocket PC's as well!

no one could have ever imagined that a system developed by louis braille in nineteenth century will loose importance with the arival of 21th century... lol.

more importantly, the invention of screen readers and assistive technology, (credits to jaws), has changed the world of the visually impaired community by a million of kilometres.

well i think its enough, and sorry if my above post proves to be senseless or uncoordinated

regards
sid.

He picked up the wrench and broke the guy’s wrist with it, one, and then the other wrist, two, and turned back and did the same to the guy who had held the hammer, three, four. The two men were somebody’s weapons, consciously deployed, and no soldier left an enemy’s abandoned ordnance on the field in working order.

2012-05-30 19:45:57

Hi sid,
I agree with everything you said. apart frombraille going out of stile. since you can buy a braille display but they are very very exspencive.

I'm gone for real :)

2012-05-31 02:57:32

@Brad

I know Aprone took interest when he firststarted developing the program, and I definitely liked the idea myself if only for the sake of practicing, but coding it became somewhat complicated and the lack of interest generated put this project to rest along with other interesting and rather useful little bits of software he tinkered with for awhile like the weather watcher, and of course, swamp unexpectedly took the most massive of twists and turns by becoming a fulltime development matter as it grew to be seen as a serious game.

When life gives you oranges, demand lemons since everyone else is obviously getting them.