Cross-platform braille rpinting?

[Lloyd Rasmussen]

The Ctrl-L is commonly used as the form-feed character.  CRLF is typically 
used by Windows-driven embossers; it may be user-configurable on some 
models.  Many embossers accept escape sequences to activate special 
functions or change operating modes.

There are many different translations of ASCII/Unicode characters to 
braille, depending on the language being used.  You might gain some insight 
by discussions with the developers of BrlTTY or the LibLouis project.  And 
you need to know what width and page depth have been set for a particular 
embosser, because they are not usually set to wrap long lines.  Hope this 
helps.

At 10:45 AM 2/16/2009, you wrote:
>Hi.
>
>As soneone who last time used a real-world braille printer
>approximately ten years ago under DOS, I find myself in need to
>write code to print braille on different platforms (Linux, Windows, 
>possibly MacOSX).
>
>Is anyone here familiar with the details of how the text stream sent
>to the printer needs to be formatted?  How, for instance, are
>pagebreaks indicated?  In UNIX, I am used to ASCII character 12,
>but given the CRLF/LF Windows/UNIX linefeed differences, I am guessing
>it isn't that simple.  What do commonly used braille rpinters expect?
>
>Additionally, what braille mapping do they expect?  Since I am
>printing dot patterns, it is very important that what I send
>is what ends up on paper in dots.  I guess I am asking too
>much from nowadays braille printers to understand unicode braille?
>If so, what mappings are typically configurable on a braille printer,
>and what is the default, if any?
>
>Thanks for every help you can give me
>--
>CYa,
>   ⡍⠁⠗⠊⠕ | Debian Developer <URL:http://debian.org/>
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Lloyd Rasmussen, Senior Project Engineer, Engineering Section
National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Library of Congress    (202) 707-0535   <http://www.loc.gov/nls>
HOME:  <http://lras.home.sprynet.com>
The opinions expressed here are my own and do not necessarily represent 
those of NLS.