Re: Braille support for Debian

[bruce@Pixar.com (Bruce Perens)]

> I'm still waiting for a couple of guys in Montreal to update their 
> drivers ... And the documentation isn't finished ...

OK. A package that drove only your device and wasn't documented would
allow me to install it with some confidence that I am placing things
where you want them, and would allow you to test the boot disk. You may
then elaborate the package as time permits.

> Even so, there is the small problem of the number of possibilities: there 
> are a minimum of three major manufacturers (Tieman B.V., Netherlands; 
> TeleSensory Inc., USA; Alva, Japan?), and then there's no telling which 
> serial port the user will want to use ...

Hm. How to self-bootstrap a blind user without sighted assistance...
If they have access to an MS-DOS system with a braille interface, they
could run a DOS program on the boot floppy that would help them write a
configuration file which is then read by the installation program.

The init program on my next boot disk is tiny-init, not sysvinit. I can
deal with the braille device, however, and I think that Miquel van Smoorenberg
(who maintains sysvinit) won't have any problem inserting the shell statements
you need.

The installation program I'm currently working on is more graphical (using
ncurses forms and menus) than previous. For the long term you might want to
work on a more braille-friendly installation.

How do you like "rsynth"? When it has access to the OED database it's
pretty good, but its implementation using Klatt's software vocal tract
makes it too slow to be practical on some computers. A synthesizer using
pre-recorded phonemes would be able to run in real time.

	Thanks

	Bruce
--
Bruce Perens <Bruce@Pixar.com> Pixar Animation Studios
Author of the Twelve-Step Program to Quit Emacs
Toy Story: > US$174M domestic box office receipts and an Oscar so far.