[BRLTTY] Braille input?

[Jason White]

On Sun, Mar 09, 2008 at 09:06:48AM +0100, Mario Lang wrote:
 
> 
> > On a related note, do you think the core should also implement navigation
> > mode for a braille keyboard so that each driver doesn't need to do
> > it individually?
> 
> I am not sure this is really feasable, given that some of our
> current default bindings are pretty optimized on an ergonomic
> level, and some drivers probably try to keep a minimum level of
> compatibility to the windows default bindings of that display...
> What drivers are those, actually.  I've been using th plural form, but
> now that I think of it, I only know about the HandyTech displays,
> which have a 8-dot braille + 2 space bars layout.
> What other displays are there, and do they have similarities in how they do
> navigation mode on the 8 dots?

There's a binding to the six-key Baum displays for eight-dot input, which is
obviously unique. Beyond that, BrailleNote may be supported (I would have to
check the code).

Returning to the earlier question, perhaps the issue of implementing braille
input in the core should be separated from the question of the layout. For
example, the driver could supply a structure (or an enumerated value) that
specifies the layout to use. Then all the driver would need to supply are the
key press/release notifications.

In general, I think BRLTTY should eventually move to a model where all of the
bindings of keys/buttons/switches/sensors etc., on the display to BRLTTY
commands are specifiable and configurable outside the drivers, ultimately in a
configuration file.

The DOS driver supplied with Baum displays used to be able to do this for a
number of their braille display models.