From bargi@dots.physics.orst.edu Thu Aug 31 23:42 MET 1995 Received: from faui45.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (root@faui45.informatik.uni-erlangen.de [131.188.34.45]) by immd4.informatik.uni-erlangen.de with ESMTP id XAA14775 (8.6.12/7.4f-FAU);; Thu, 31 Aug 1995 23:42:15 +0200 Received: from dots.physics.orst.edu (bargi@dots.PHYSICS.ORST.EDU [128.193.96.106]) by uni-erlangen.de with ESMTP id XAA03048 (8.6.12/7.4f-FAU); for ; Thu, 31 Aug 1995 23:42:03 +0200 Received: (from bargi@localhost) by dots.physics.orst.edu (8.6.11/8.6.9) id OAA15627; Thu, 31 Aug 1995 14:41:47 -0700 From: Hadi Bargi Rangin Message-Id: <199508312141.OAA15627@dots.physics.orst.edu> Subject: README.DOTSCREEN To: screen@uni-erlangen.de Date: Thu, 31 Aug 1995 14:41:47 -0700 (PDT) Cc: bargi@dots.physics.orst.edu (Hadi Bargi Rangin) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Length: 5423 Status: RO Hallo, leider war readme file fuer dotscreen nicht in unserem dotscreen-Packet, deshalb schicke ich es Euch nachtraeglich. Nachdem Ihr unseren packet getestet habt, koennen wir Euch anrufen und vielleicht mehr ueber die Einzelnheiten sprechen, ob wir unsere Weiterentwicklung koordinieren wollen. Danke, Gruss, Hadi =============================================================================== Quick introduction to dotscreen ------------------------------- 1. Introduction 2. Is dotscreen different as screen? 3. Installation instructions 4. Functions description 5. Further development 1. Introduction =============== Dotscreen, is a system which allow a person direct access to unix via a braille display. The emphasis is on direct, because the braille display is connected directly to the serial port on the unix machine. You no longer must use a dos machine running a terminal emulation logged into a unix machine. Dotscreen is built on top of screen, a powerful full-screen window manager for unix tty terminals. Screen keeps track of what is being displayed in each window that it is managing so that it can easily switch back and forth between these windows. Dotscreen makes this stored window information available via a braille display. Dotscreen only allows access to tty terminal sessions, it does not allow access to X-Windows, however, it will run in an xterm window. Currently, it works with the TSI Navigator 40 and the TSI PowerBraille 40 braille displays. We plan to support other displays as demand and information about other displays is made available to us 2. Is dotscreen different than screen? ====================================== All of screens functions still work in dotscreen. A few of the functions are not accessible via braille, but we expect to remedy that in future releases. 3. Installation instructions ============================ Please read the INSTALL file for full installation instructions. In addition to those instructions, note that you must create a .screenrc file and that file must contain the type of braille display that you are using and the serial device that the display is connected to. A minimal .screenrc file should contain something like the following four lines, (these are only examples, please customize them for your configuration) # example of .screenrc when using braille display bd_start_braille on bd_type powerbraille_40 bd_port /dev/ttyS0 bd_braille_table /home/gardner/us-braille.tbl # end of example 4. Functions description ======================== The basic operation of screen is described in README. The braille navigation commands are similar to commands usually found on dos braille screenreaders. Also, because dotscreen is built on top of screen, the user can switch back and forth easily between many running applications. The braille commands can be changed any time after starting screen using the internal screen "C-a :" command line. All braille commands begin with "bd_"; following is the list of braille commands: bd_start_braille on/off # Starts/stops using braille features on screen bd_link on/off # links/unlinks braille cursor to/from screen cursor bd_bell on/off # turn on/off sending bell-signal to terminal bd_scroll on/off # enables/disables scrolling bd_skip on/off # skip/don't skip balnk lines bd_width # number of braille cells that user want to use, # this value is always <= total number of cells bd_ncrc # number of cells displayed on the right side # of physical cursor (default = 1) bd_info # displays braille/screen cursor position # depending on its value, (no info: 0, only # bc-info: 1, only sc-info: 2, bc- and sc-info: 3 bd_port # serial port which braille display is connected to bd_braille_table # braille table to be used. German, US and GS # braille tables are provided bd_type # braille display type being used Note: currently valid value for some parameters: bd_type: 1. navigator_40 2. powerbraille_40. bd_braille_table: 1. gr-braille.tbl German braille code 2. us-braille.tbl US computer braille code 3. gs-braille.tbl GS braille code Since the braille tables are in files, you should give the full pathnames of the files either in .screenrc or using the internal screen "C-a :" command line. 5. Further development ====================== As mentioned above, currently Dotscreen works with Telesensory braille displays the PowerBraille and the Navigator because Telesensory has given us the information needed to program their braille display. We plan to add support for other braille displays when and if we get the requisite information from the braille display manufacturer. Also some things such as cursor navigation from the braille display have not been implemented. If you find a feature missing that you wish to have, please contact us. This software has been developed within the Science Access Project at Oregon State University under the direction of John Gardner. Authors: Hadi Bargi Rangin (bargi@dots.physics.orst.edu) Bill Barry (barryb@dots.physics.orst.edu)