[BRLTTY] Braille keyboard layout

[Sébastien Hinderer]

Dear all,

While reading the screen, at least in text mode, the command I use the
more frequently is doubtlessly the one that displays the next indow on
the braille display. Assuming that the same should be true for others, I
am lead to this idea that if there is one thing that must be payed
attention to when designing a braille keyboard, it is the position of
the key intended to be bound to this command.

So far, I could work with two braille terminals. The first one had its
"go to next window key" at the left of the display, where as the second
one has it at the right end, more precisely under the last cells.
Between these two, my personal preference goes to the first one. Trying
to rationalize this, I came to the following explanation:
when I read braille on paper, my indexes both read, say, the first half
or one line. Then, the right one reads the second part of the line on
its own, while the left one locates the beginning of the next line, thus
helping the rihgt index to join this point of the page to continue
reading. The first terminal, I felt, was well adapted to this process.
Indeed, my fingers could work pretty much the same way on the terminal
and on the paper, the only difference being that the left index had to
locate the "goto next window" button instead of the beginning of the
next printed line.
With a "go to next window" button at the end of the display, though,
things look different to me: my right index has to both read the end of
the window on its own and to press the button, while theleft index
uselessly waits at the beginning of the window.

To sum up: I believe that if the "go to next window" button is located at
the end (right) of the braille window, I am less efficient in reading
than when it is placed at the left (beginning) of the braille window.
The explanation, according to me, is that the latter disposition allows
a more balanced used of the indexes, whereas the former one leads to the
left index being underused. Or perhaps it is a matter of being able to
do things simultaneously or not:  with the key at the left, the wto
fingers can do things in parallel (the right one reads while the left
one goes back to the key), whereas with the key at the right, reading
and finding the key have to be done sequencially.

What do you huys think about all this ?
Where doyou prefer to have your "go to next" key ?
Are there alternative systems (like Papenmeier's easy access bar) you
find adapted ?

Thanks a lot for your opinions.

Sébastien.