off topic braille display

Lee_Maschmeyer at wayne.edu Lee_Maschmeyer at wayne.edu
Mon Feb 7 15:00:19 UTC 2005


Kenny,

I haven't used an 18-cell display, but if I were going to buy a short
one I'd want something that's a divisor of 40. In practice that means
either 20 or 40, with 40 being preferable if you have the dough. :-)

Personally, though, I'd be scared to buy a used braille display of any
kind. They're too expensive, too fragile, too susceptible to wear. But
if a new one isn't an option even after saving, or if braille just
isn't important enough, then a 20 or 40 is what I'd lean toward. I
still think status cells are very useful but hardly anybody adds them
these days.

On the other hand, most speech users have braille only as a backup and
use it for things like when the braille lands on the crux of the
dialog item, like the check box itself so you can see its state while
the speech is busy telling you what it means. This approach requires a
speech package with braille, such as the philosophy behind a Windows
screenreader. I've never used speech with brltty but they used to say
speech was pretty limited. There is/was something called brass (by
whatever spelling) that I think was integrated braille and speech but
judging by comments on this list it hasn't really caught on.

So unless braille is really trivial, get the 40; but remember I'm too
deaf to use speech much (none on Linux) and haven't used an 18, so
take this message with either a salt shaker or the whole salt
mine. :-)

-- 

Lee Maschmeyer
<lee_Maschmeyer at wayne.edu>

"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear
to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than
what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
     --Lewis Carroll




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