[BRLTTY] Contraction error and patch: in hyphen com

[Lee Maschmeyer]

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 04:44:27PM -0400, Dave Mielke wrote:
> 
> What's the precise rule? For example, let's say that the word were 
> "contendedly" rather than "completely". Would the "con" be spelled out or 
> contracted?

The rule is that since the com sign is written identically with the
hyphen, com cannot be preceded by hyphen. But this must also include
the case where space hyphen space gets translated to hyphen hyphen and
thus removes the space before the com. The con sign is not written the
same as a hyphen and thus is not affected by this.

It's really just a question of logic. The word "in" followed by a
hyphen must be spelled out because a low sign must be in contact with
a non-low sign, so the word "in" can't be used when followed by a
hyphen. By the same token the com sign can't be preceded by a hyphen
as noted above. It gets hairy when the hyphens are affected by the
translation of space hyphen space into hyphen hyphen. Then too you
have beginning or end of print line and beginning or end of braille
string (the braille as displayed on the display as the result of
panning) which messes everything up. The patches I've submitted don't
handle all the cases but at least they can take care of some of them.

I get scared whenever "This should be handled in software" is
mentioned. Of course this is right, but I last studied C in 1980 and
am not motivated enough to learn the whole language again. I (and
everybody else) will have unbounded admiration for any C programmer
who takes this on. In the meantime, I figure half a loaf is better
than none. :-)

HTH,

-- 

Lee Maschmeyer

"Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear
to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than
what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
     --Lewis Carroll