From: Warren.Figueiredo@f6.n3800.z1.fidonet.org (Warren Figueiredo)
Newsgroups: misc.handicap
Subject: New Hot Dots
Date: 13 Apr 92 21:16:20 GMT
Reply-To: Warren.Figueiredo@f6.n3800.z1.fidonet.org
Organization: FidoNet node 1:3800/6 - CompuChurch (tm) IH, Baton Rouge LA

Index Number: 21088

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

>anyone out there know about the  upcoming version of hot dots?
>it's supposedly will have some automatic formating sceme... dan

Yes, I saw a preliminary version of MEGADOTS demonstrated at the recent
conference of the California Transcribers and Educators of the Visually
Handicapped held in Los Angeles.

Here is a portion of the MEGADOTS brochure
The Design for MEGADOTS
Megadots incorporates four unique technologies
-- a style-based formatting system which incorporates the rules for
braille
-- A smart importation system that is able to properly apply styles
-- instant feedback on the effects of any changes in the text
-- Very fast translators with virtually perfect "round trip
translations" available from within the WYSIWYG editing environment

Megadots -- A Style-Based System
A "style" is a collection of formatting attributes which can be applied
to an entire paragraph in one stroke. A style allows a consistent
pattern of output for similar material. In MegaDots, the styles describe
the formatting attributes in both the print manifestation and the
braille manifestation. When the text is translated from print into
braille, the system knows all the formatting attributes, since it knows
the style of each paragraph.

Smart File Importation System
When you import a file into MegaDots, each paragraph is inspected
intimately. The size of the paragraph, the number of sentences, the use
of emphasis, the kinds of characters that are in the paragraph are all
checked over. Based on this inspection, the file importation system
guesses what style to apply to the paragraph.

Instant Feedback
In the MegaDots editing environment, once a change is made, the user can
see the results in their choice of print or braille. Once the file has
been translated, it is quickly reformatted on the screen for the
appropriate medium (braille or print). If an error is noticed on the
screen, the user has the choice of fixing it in print or in braille.

Fast Translation and the "Round Trip"
In MegaDots, once you press the f5 button to translate a file, it takes
just a few seconds.
  In braille, the same symbol can mean several different things. For
  example, a slash and the letters "s t". To prevent this from
  happening, the MegaDots translator places invisible control characters
  in the braille file indicating that dots 3-4 came from a slash rather
  than an "s t". With perfect round trip translators, you can edit a
  print file, translate it to braille, make changes to the braille, back
  translate it again, make changes, and then translate to braille again.
  The result is an astonishing power to manipulate a file in the way
  that you want to.

If you want more information, contact Raised Dot. RDC expects to release
MegaDots during the summer.

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