From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: (qmail 31396 invoked from network); 7 Dec 1996 04:12:42 -0000 Received: from netcom19.netcom.com (jrebman@192.100.81.132) by mail2.redhat.com with SMTP; 7 Dec 1996 04:12:42 -0000 Received: (from jrebman@localhost) by netcom19.netcom.com (8.6.13/Netcom) id UAA25407; Fri, 6 Dec 1996 20:11:54 -0800 From: jrebman@netcom.com (Jim Rebman) Message-Id: <199612070411.UAA25407@netcom19.netcom.com> Subject: Re: 6 dots and 8 dots braille To: blinux-list@redhat.com Date: Fri, 6 Dec 1996 20:11:53 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19961006152049.0067784c@netvision.net.il> from "avi shaby" at Oct 6, 96 05:20:49 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit List-Id: Avi writes: > is there a future for the eight dots braille ? > if yes , is it spreading rapidly ? Probably not, except for it's use in refreshable braille displays. It is going to be very difficult to get the majority of braille readers to switch to reading an 8-dot code, and of course, that implies adopting another code as well as undertaking the effort to retrain your fingers. I say difficult, but in practical terms, really it is impossible -- more for political reasons than technical ones. If you are interested in looking at a technically elegant, and perhaps even superior, proposed 8-dot unified braille code, you can check out the GS-8 code that is described on the web pages of the Oregon State Science Access Project: http://dots.physics.orst.edu The code was developed jointly by Dr. John Gardner of Oregon State University and Norberto Salinas of the University of Kansas, hence the "G" and "S" respectively. It is a very interesting code, but I don't think it will ever be used in the mainstream. As to your question of how rapidly 8-dot braille is being adopted, the answer is, it's not. Look around -- do you see any 8-dot slates or Braillers being sold anywhere in this country? They do exist, but mostly in Europe, and mostly in Spain and Germany as far as I can tell. The one braille product being produced in this country that has 8-dot capability is the Braille Lite 40 from Blazie engineering, and mostly that is because it is capable of supporting two languages, and is intended to be sold in other countries where 8-dot braille is used. It does have uses here for things like 8-dot computer braille, and it is possible to make the GS-8 code an optional "second language" on this machine. Also, I should mention that the Braille Blazer embosser has an option to produce 8-dot output -- there may be one or two other embossers available in North America that also have this capability, but I don't know which ones offhand. Hope this helps, Jim Rebman