RE: DSSSL capabilities /braille

["Pawson, David" <DPawson@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dave Love writes:
 > I just meant that someone might already have done appropriate
 > font-mangling for Braille, in which case you'd probably know.
 > 


Can I have a clearer definition of font mangling please!
My mother used to put clothes through the mangle to 
remove excess water after washing them, but doing the
same to a poor neglected font strikes me as distinctly
cruel!





The basic process of braille production follows three
stages for a majority of users.
1. Apply contractions to individual words (suggested scheme if 
done if part of DSSSL, else unix tools externally). This to 
reduce the bulk of the output. E.g. faction reduces to fac;n
the tion being contracted to ;n. This could be a whole word
(and the etc) or part word at the beginning or end or middle
of a word. This is also country specific, since word frequency
is different for different users.  Apply 'topic specific' codes, 
e.g. chess, music, maths all have their own coding. This could
be a trade between the difficulty of marking up in sgml and 
direct 'keying' of the six (or eight) dots of a braille cell within
a braille engine. We have not trialled that yet. 

2. Layout the contracted code on a multiplicity of paper sizes,
varying from <US letter up to quite large, each specified as 
n cells wide by m cells high (fixed width font). Layout rules are
again country specific (mainly for historical reasons, and 
to me confusingly, copying the print style). This is well within
the capabilities of DSSSL. Headers, footers, page numbering
(braille page and original print page) are all used.

3. The output is an ASCII file ready to feed to an embosser
which raises the dots on the page. This either single or 
double sided (think about that one, its not crazy). A braille 
font may be used to 'show' this on screen.

Is that _an_ interpretation of font mangling as applied to
braille?



From: Dave Pawson. RNIB(UK)
e-mail dpawson@xxxxxxxxxxx



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