The User Level documentation assumes you have read, understood, and practiced the material in the Learner Level. Along the way, you've gained enough experience in communicating with the Apple that some things have become a habit. Therefore, in the User Level, we won't tell you when to press <CR> in the menu dialogue. We won't say things like "Enter the number for the drive where the data disk is located, then press <CR>; BEX presents a numbered list of chapters, and prompts you to choose from the list by entering numbers." Instead, we say: "Scan a drive for chapters."
BEX's prompts also get more concise at the User Level.
Instead of prompting
Main Menu
Enter Option:
BEX prompts Main Menu:
Press <CR>
at this point, and you see that there are 16 options available, seven more
than at the Learner Level. You can now quit at any menu, and there are
four more options on the Second Menu and one more on the Page Menu.
Another distinctive change from the Learner Level is how BEX prompts for
chapters. Instead of Drive number or chapter name:
BEX
prompts Drive or chapter:
When you type the name of one
chapter, BEX reprompts Drive or chapter:
This
means you can individually type the names of several chapters, rather than
choosing from a numbered list. There are a number of other shortcuts for
chapter selection: details appear in Section 4.
Three of the Main Menu's new options help you
quickly exchange information between the Apple and the tape-based
VersaBraille. Options A - Autoprint from VersaBraille, F - From
VersaBraille, and T - To VersaBraille are discussed in Section 11. The BEX
Interface Guide contains step by step explanations for On the Second Menu, option I - Input through slot
allows downloading data from other computers, including the disk-based
VersaBraille, Kurzweil Reading Machine, and many others--details in
Section 12. Also new to the Second Menu is option W - Write textfile,
which converts BEX chapters into sequential textfiles for use by other
Apple programs.
In Section 5 you'll learn all about the
clipboard a fun feature that makes manipulating text very
easy. Also discussed is braille keyboard, which lets you use six keys and
the spacebar on the Apple's keyboard to enter braille text.
Since you can import braille information from other
computers and enter braille information in the Editor, you may find use
for option B - Back translate from grade 2 on the Main Menu. Back
translate allows you to prepare text in a braille environment (including
entering format commands) and then process it through BEX for print
output.
Option M - Multi-function print on the Main Menu adds
three features to option P - Print, which are explained in Section 6.
Section 7 deals with the great variety of format commands that allow you
to place information exactly where you want it.
Option R - Replace characters was discussed briefly at
the Learner Level. In Section 8 we go into the guts of this very
powerful feature, which lets you automate many, many reformatting
tasks, and develop your own keyboard shortcuts.
Most computer software outputs the "user dialogue"
information only to the computer screen. BEX has four channels for this
dialogue. At the Learner Level, we only used two channels: the screen
channel and the voice channel. The screen channel mode was limited to what
you described in your configuration. The voice channel output was
restricted to the SlotBuster and the Echo family of synthesizers.
At the User Level, the voice channel can be connected
to either an Echo, SlotBuster or a serial voice device. You can choose
from ten different types of screen display in the Editor and when printing
to the screen. The User Level also opens the third, braille channel for
the information going to the computer screen.
Section 2 provides background information on the
choices available in this expanded user environment.
You tell BEX to unlock all these new features by
creating a User Level configuration. Section 3 steps you through the
process of defining a User Level configuration, and provides guidelines
for answering the many new configuration questions. Nitty-gritty technical
details, as always, are available in the BEX Interface Guide.
We use the term user dialogue to describe
the communication between you and your Apple. Most sighted computer users
read the user dialogue on the screen and instruct the Apple through the
regular keyboard. When a sighted user wants to examine a particular part
of the user dialogue in detail, they may make a hard copy printout for
further study.
There are a number of ways to make what appears on the
screen accessible to blind and partially sighted people: BEX tries to
support as many as possible. This means that you've got a lot of choices,
and that, as a blind or partially sighted computer user, you need to learn
a little bit about input and output. The
information in this Section provides you with the background you need to
answer some User Level configuration questions.
At the Learner Level, we focussed on BEX as word
processor. At the User Level, we explain more of BEX's word
processing features. In addition, we begin to explore BEX's other role:
BEX as I/O system.
What's I/O, and why should I care
about it? I/O is the abbreviation for
input/output, and is an important piece of computerese to
understand. Most sighted computer users never think about I/O: they simply
use the regular keyboard for input (getting information into
the computer), and the screen and printer for output (getting
information out of the computer). In fact, most software for the Apple
only uses the Apple's built-in I/O features. But when you use BEX,
BEX takes control of all I/O, creating a unique user environment. BEX
certainly lets you use the regular keyboard and screen, but also lets you
use alternative I/O channels.
BEX has four output channels: screen,
voice, braille, and print. The first two channels are the most efficient
way to present the user dialogue, because they are fast and transitory.
With BEX, you can set the screen channel for five different sizes (from
80-column to 5-column) and for two modes (print letters or braille dots.)
BEX lets you combine voice output with large letters
on the screen. Most of the time, using these two channels suffices.
The braille and print channels are useful when you
want a permanent record of your dialogue with the computer. They are much
less efficient for general communication with the Apple, because of the
time required for a print or braille device to make hard copy records. The
braille channel sends all the information on the screen to a braille
device--you can use a braille embosser or a paperless braille display. The
print channel sends all the information on the screen to an inkprint
printer. At the User Level, you can configure BEX so that all the user
dialogue appears on the braille channel. Output of the user dialogue to
the print channel is only available at the Master Level.
Don't confuse the braille and print channels with
printing to a brailler or printer. The braille and print
channels let you record the user dialogue: menu prompts and your
responses. When you send formatted text to a printer or brailler, then
you're printing to that device.
To summarize, BEX controls all I/O for the Apple. You
tell BEX what I/O you want and BEX makes it happen. At the Learner Level,
you defined your I/O preferences in your configuration. At the User Level,
you can change some of BEX's I/O as you use the program, without having to
reconfigure. At the Master Level, you are able to independently control
all four channels at any time.
When you can see the 80-column or 40-column screen,
you have access to a lot of information at once. You can review several
lines of the user dialogue, and you can fit the whole list of menu choices
on one screen. When you instruct BEX to make 20, 10, or 5-column display,
less information fits on one screen. When you listen to the dialogue
through a voice device, you only hear one word at a time. Therefore, BEX
has to make accommodations for your need to get the whole picture of the
user dialogue.
When you use BEX on the Apple, all input and output go
through BEX. This means that the speed of the dialogue is
controlled by the speed of the slowest I/O channel that's currently
in use. For example, suppose you want to hear the list of options at the
Main Menu. You told BEX to send output to the Wide (80-column) screen and
the Echo. At the Main Menu prompt, you enter <CR> to get the list of
options. BEX sends the information in the list to two channels: the
80-column character generator on your 80-column card, and the TEXTALKER
software that controls the Echo circuit card. Speaking the list of options
takes longer than displaying them on the screen, so the words show up on
the screen at the same time they are spoken by the Echo.
Sometimes you won't want to listen to the whole list.
The TEXTALKER software has two ways to let you shut up the Echo. As the
Echo is speaking, you can enter control-X; this disconnects the TEXTALKER
software, and the Echo shuts up. TEXTALKER is automatically reconnected
when the Apple needs more input. (Control-X performs the same function
with the SlotBuster.) Control-X doesn't affect BEX's screen channel, so
the list is quickly displayed on the screen. When BEX prompts for more
input with the Main menu, then the Echo can start speaking. Since the
characters are on the screen, you can use screen review at this point to
review the information. (More information on Echo screen review appears in
Learner Section The other way to shut up the Echo is by pressing a
valid command. Suppose you want to know which key to press to choose the
Grade 2 translator. Press <CR> at the Main Menu and you hear the
list of options. As soon as you hear When you instruct BEX to use one of the large print
screen displays (20, 10 or 5 column) you find yourself in a similar
situation. All of the menu options can't fit in one screen, so it takes a
while for the list of menu options to scroll by. If you don't care to wait
for the entire list, you can enter control-Z to temporarily disconnect the
screen channel. Just like control-X, control-Z automatically reconnects
the screen channel when the Apple wants more input.
BEX allows you to choose between five sizes of print
on the screen, from tiny to enormous, and also allows you to choose two
styles of display: regular letters or braille dots. As we've mentioned,
the sizes are defined in columns (how many characters fit on
one line on the screen). The actual size of the letters depends on the
size of your monitor. Most screen options draw letters on the
screen--they're called HI-RES because they use the
Apple's high resolution drawing routines. With any HI-RES screen
option, you can control the rate of scrolling with the open-Apple (or
command) key and solid-Apple (or option) key.
Two screen options use the Apple's built-in
character generator. You can only use screen review software (like
TEXTALKER or SCAT) with the 80-column Wide and 40-column Non-HI-RES screen
displays, so size is relevant even if you depend only on the voice channel
for output of the user dialogue. The Echo still speaks the menus even when
you choose a HI-RES screen When you configure with 80- or 40-column screen
without voice output, BEX switches to HI-RES screen for two
options. This switch allows sighted users to see control characters, using
the same shapes as in the Editor. This switch to HI-RES happens with
option P - Printer control code display at the Starting Menu, and when you
type changes directly with Replace characters.
There are four ways to control screen display in BEX;
the one you use depends on your level and your whim. For all levels, you
specify what size screen display you want in your configuration. (The
default values are N for menus and H for the Editor.) At the Learner
Level, this is the only method of controlling the screen channel that we
document.
At the User Level, you can change screen display in
the Editor by entering control-S S followed by one of the ten screen-size
letters. For example, you configure with 20-column screen, and then wish
to use 40-column braille dots in the Editor, you enter control-S S B.
(Details in Section 5.)
At the User Level, you can also specify varying screen
sizes when you print to the screen. When BEX prompts Each screen mode has its plusses and minuses. In the
Editor, W When you can't see the screen at all, W and N modes
combined with the Echo or other output device give just as much
information as a HI-RES mode, and are also a very short amount speedier.
The HI-RES screen modes require a longer time to display because BEX has
to instruct the Apple what every character looks like. W or N modes are
also good for Echo users, because you can use Echo screen review. Of
course, for the partially-sighted user, 20-column or larger display at the
menus is helpful.
There are three different contexts for BEX screen
display: at menus, in the Editor, and when printing to the screen. During
screen display at menus, you have scrolling: When
there's more information than can appear on one screen, every line on
the screen moves up one. The top line disappears, and the new text shows
up on the bottom line.
In the Editor, the screen display changes to match
your cursor movement. When you advance your cursor two paragraphs, the
screen display jumps so that your cursor appears in the center lines of
the screen.
Printing to the screen is like printing to a printer
that has pause on form feed. Each screen's worth of data is one
output page. When the screen is full, BEX makes a low boop
and pauses. Press <space> for the next page.
Printing to a braille previewer or Review class
printer is a For 80 and 40-column screen, BEX uses the Apple's
built-in scrolling abilities. As a new line of text appears, every line on
the screen moves up one, and the top line scrolls off the top
into oblivion. For all other screen sizes, BEX provides a different
scrolling system, which is available at all menus. You can control the
speed of scrolling; you can momentarily freeze the screen display, and you
can slow the screen display down to a crawl. Here's how:
When you want to temporarily suspend output to the
large print screen, enter control-Z. Control-Z parallels the function of
control-X for the Echo and SlotBuster. Control-Z stops output to the
screen until the next time the Apple is waiting for input.
You may run into a problem here, however. DOS 3.3 has
a built-in function that pauses the catalog display every 24 lines. When
your disk has more than 24 files, you must press any key to see the rest
of the catalog. Suppose your disk has 50 files on it. After you see the
14th file, you don't want to look at the rest of the catalog. When you
press control-Z, BEX suppresses the remaining ten files in the current
catalog screen; all you see is the cursor on the bottom screen line. Until
you press any key, DOS 3.3 waits.
In this situation, press control-Z twice. The first
control-Z functions as the "any key" DOS needs to continue the catalog
display. BEX gets the second control-Z and suppresses the catalog display
for the 25th through 48th files. Finally, press control-Z twice to skip
over the last two files. Because BEX is suppressing large print output,
you do not see the The 20, 10, and 5-column HI-RES screen displays use a
part of the Apple's memory called, logically enough, the HI-RES
memory. Unfortunately, a number of other parts of BEX also require
accommodation in the HI-RES memory. When you have 20, 10 or 5 column
screen display at menus, and you choose a menu option that uses HI-RES
memory, you temporarily change from HI-RES to N screen. This doesn't mean
anything is wrong with your BEX disk. It's an unavoidable result of
how the Apple's memory is arranged.
At the Learner Level, BEX limits output on the voice
channel to a member of the Echo family or the SlotBuster. These devices
are integral voice devices. When you combine the circuit card
with the synthesizers' TEXTALKER or SCAT software, speech is
integrated into all the Apple's operations.
At the User Level, you can connect a serial
voice device instead of an integral device to the voice channel. A
serial voice device is like a talking printer. You send it
some text, and it talks. BEX has No serial voice device has screen review capabilities.
BEX's Review class printer depends on TEXTALKER'S and SCAT'S
screen review features--details in Learner Level Section 10 and Appendix
2.
BEX lets you send commands to your serial voice device
in a similar manner to sending Echo or SlotBuster. At any BEX menu,
control-O begins a command that's sent to the voice channel. After
you enter control-O, your keystrokes are all directed to the voice
channel, so you can enter any commands for your serial voice device.
Finish the command with <CR>; this signals BEX that you have ended
the command. For example, to set the volume on the Echo GP, enter
control-O control-E 12 V <CR>.
As with Echo and SlotBuster commands, you can send
commands to the voice channel from inside the Editor, too. A plain
control-O is the Output text Editor command, so you must precede it with
control-S, and finish the command sequence with <CR>.
In Section 3, we explain how you configure a standard
series of commands, or an automatic set-up sequence, for
voice, braille, and print devices. Once you give this information to BEX,
it automatically sends the sequence every time it addresses the device.
When you want a voice device to use a particular set of parameters
that's different from the default, you establish an automatic set-up
sequence with the commands that create the mode.
In addition to an integral or serial
voice device, BEX allows you to have a braille device display all the
information in the user dialogue. The braille device can be a braille
computer terminal, like either VersaBraille or a Cranmer Brailler; or
simply a braille printer, such as the MBOSS-1 or Thiel. The output on the
braille channel is screen braille: every inkprint character
is represented by one braille cell. Since there are 96
printa inkprint characters and only 64 braille cells, some
braille cells do double duty, representing more than one inkprint
character. Details on screen braille appear in Appendix 1.
While you can send all the user dialogue to the
braille channel, it may not be the most efficient way to do word
processing. When you are using a braille terminal, then you have to keep
track of two cursors: the terminal's own, and the Apple's. When
you are using a braille printer, then you have to wait for the braille to
be embossed. In either case, voice output is faster.
The tape-based VersaBraille is a special case. Many
people find the best way to exploit the power of the VersaBraille and
Apple is to prepare material on the VersaBraille, and then send the data
to the Apple for back-translation and printing. Similarly, print oriented
material is prepared in the Apple environment, then translated and
transferred to the VersaBraille for close review. Three Main Menu options
enable very fast transfer of information between the Apple and the
tape-based VersaBraille--details in Section 11 and the Interface Guide.
The control-O commands described in Part 5 actually
direct keystrokes to both the voice and braille channels. When you don't
have a device on the voice channel, then the control-O commands go just to
the braille channel. At BEX menus, enter control-O, the braille device
commands, and finish with <CR>. In the Editor, enter control-S
control-O, the braille device commands, and finish with <CR>.
There are six ways you can put text into a BEX
chapter. At the Learner Level, we explored two methods. Most of the
attention focussed on typing text on the Apple keyboard. Learner Level
Section 12 demonstrated option R - Read textfile to chapter on the Second
Menu, which lets you copy the information from a DOS 3.3 or ProDOS
textfile into a BEX chapter.
At the User Level, you have access to the four other
ways to get text into BEX. Section 11 explores the VersaBrailles in
detail; BEX has many features designed to make it easy to input text
through a VersaBraille. Section 12 discusses option I - Input through slot
on the Second Menu. BEX contains a limited terminal function;
you tell BEX to accept information that's being sent from another
computer. That other computer could be a special-purpose device like
PortaBraille, Keynote, or SmallTalk, an optical scanner like the Kurzweil
Reading Machine, or another general-market computer, like the IBM-PC or
Macintosh.
In Section 5, Part 7, we discuss BEX's braille
keyboard mode. BEX can change how the keys on the Apple keyboard
are interpreted; you can use six keys and the spacebar like a Perkins
keyboard to perform braille data entry.
Establishing a configuration at the Learner Level
involved answering three basic classes of questions: using a voice device;
size for the screen display; and details about your printers. At the User
Level, you are asked many more questions. You can connect braille devices
to the braille channel. (See Section 2 for a discussion of BEX's four
channels.) In Part 3, You learn how to define an automatic set-up
sequence to send to any printer, to the voice or braille channels,
to the VersaBraille, to a paperless brailler, and to a remote serial
device to input text through slot, such as an optical scanner, or other
serial computers. As at the Learner Level, you can press <CR> at any
configuration question to get a help message.
You don't need to describe in one configuration every
device you might use. When you work in both print and braille, you might
want to establish two different configurations. You can make three sets of
parameters for the same inkprint printer, plus a Review class printer. The
other configuration can contain an inkprint printer, a brailler, and a
braille previewer with voice. The only limit to the number of
configurations is the space available on disk.
To define a User Level configuration, you enter the
asterisk character at the When you want to use a different device for input to
the Apple, you answer Y to this question. The keyboard may be a
stand-alone peripheral, or it can be part of a computer terminal, like the
VersaBraille or Cranmer Brailler. You may need a specific serial interface
card for this option; see the Interface Guide for details. When you use a
Remote keyboard, it interferes with other capabilities, such as the
braille keyboard mode, so answer Y to this question only when you need it.
When BEX recognizes an Echo or SlotBuster in your
Apple, it asks if you want Echo (or SlotBuster) speech. When you do not
have an Echo or SlotBuster, or when you answer N, BEX asks if you have a
voice device for all the material going to the screen. When you answer Y,
then you have the opportunity to enter an automatic set-up sequence for
the device (see Part 3). BEX can only output to one device on the voice
channel. Therefore, you must choose between an integral and a serial voice
device. You can use the Echo for voice channel and still define a serial
voice device as one of your printers.
In addition to output on the voice channel, you can
also have the same information sent to a braille device. Only answer Y
when you want all the computer dialogue sent to a serial
braille device. Don't answer Y when you want to emboss braille documents;
configure your embosser as one of your four printers. Again, you can enter
an automatic set-up sequence for the interface card or braille device.
The answers here only affect your use of options A -
Auto print from VersaBraille, T - To VersaBraille, and F - From
VersaBraille on the Main Menu. These options transfer files between the
VersaBraille and the Apple faster than Printing and Input through slot.
(See Section 11, and Section 9 of the Interface Guide.)
The answers here only affect your use of option I -
Input through slot on the Second Menu. You give the slot number of a
device that sends serial data to BEX--see Section 12 for further details.
You have the same options here that you did at the
Learner Level. You have more ways to change screen display while you are
using the program, so the answers here only supply default values. When
you have a BDP or a DP-10, ask for the 40-column, non-HI-RES screen mode,
or for the 80-column screen display. As we stated in Learner Level Section
3, Part 4, HI-RES screen display in the Editor is designed to make it
easier for users with no vision impairment to read the screen. HI-RES
screen display refreshes slightly slower, so when you are depending on
voice alone, answer N to this question.
In addition to choosing among the eight printer
classes, you can specify an automatic set-up sequence for each one.
BEX supports many specific inkprint printers. At the
Master Level, you learn how to use specific commands for your printer, to
get different types of printing fonts.
You can print to a slot-based voice device as a class
V - Voice device printer; simply press V when prompted for the printer
class. Class V printers are a special class of printers: because they are
voice only, they need no carriage width or form length. When
you configure your voice device as a class V printer, you are not asked
for carriage width or form length. You may establish an automatic set-up
sequence if you wish. However, BEX has a hard time coping when
there's no carriage width or form length, so values are automatically
provided. These values do not affect your voice device. When you press
You use a class P - Paperless brailler to send
unformatted text to any computer device. Printing with a Paperless
brailler sends exactly what's in your chapter except for several
control characters, which are stripped out. These control characters are
<control-T>s, <ASCII 30>s, <ASCII 31>s, and
<control-S>s. What these control characters do is discussed in
Master Level Section 5. Paperless braillers are discussed fully in Section
6, Part 4.
Just like at the Learner Level, you can only answer 1
or 2. At the Master Level, we tell you how to configure up to eight
drives.
As we said in Learner Level Section 3, configuration
names follow two simple rules: the first character must be a letter, and
the name cannot exceed ten characters in length. Choose a name you can
easily remember. When the name you choose already exists on the Boot side
of BEX, then the new information overwrites the old.
After you type the name, finish with <CR>. If
you want, you can establish a default configuration by
entering <CR> alone as your configuration name. You then press
<CR> for that configuration whenever you boot.
Whenever you forget the name of your configuration,
press You can define automatic set-up sequences for voice
and braille devices, any of your printer channels, for the VersaBraille,
and for the interface card used for a remote serial device to input text
through slot. An automatic set-up sequence is a series of
characters that BEX sends out a particular slot whenever that device is
addressed. This series of characters "sets up" the device according to
your instructions. For example, you can use an automatic set-up sequence
to set a left margin on printer, so that you don't need to enter $$ml# in
every chapter you print.
Whether the commands are for the interface card or the
device attached to the interface card is up to you. For the voice channel,
the sequence is sent every time you switch menus, and every time you press
control-Reset and type You enter an automatic set-up sequence when prompted
while configuring. An automatic set-up sequence can contain any character
you can type on the regular Apple keyboard. Every key you press when
defining the set-up sequence is entered into the sequence: you can't use
the left and right arrows to correct mistakes. You may wish to set Echo
punctuation to pronounce All so you can hear the keys as you press them.
Control characters do not appear on the screen. Press the delete key to
signal the end of the set-up sequence.
At the beginning of configuring, you depressed your
Caps Lock key. When you need to enter lowercase characters in the set-up
sequence, release the Caps Lock key. Remember to depress it again after
you finish the sequence.
When you are finished configuring, you can see your
automatic set-up sequences with option V - View a configuration on the
Starting Menu. When you use this option, BEX encloses any control
character or space in angle brackets.
BEX uses an automatic set-up sequence to set up a
large print printers. However, you can still establish an automatic set-up
sequence when you configure a large print printer. When you use option V -
View a configuration, you see the automatic set-up sequence that BEX sends
as well as the one you entered.
You decide which characters to type for your automatic
set-up sequence by reading up on the manuals for the voice device,
printer, or interface card you're addressing. Details on addressing the
Super Serial Card and Apple IIc ports appear in the BEX Interface Guide.
You cannot enter BEX format commands as part of an automatic
set-up sequence. Format commands are always instructions to BEX's
formatter, not directly to the device or interface card.
You can enter some very useful information into an
automatic set-up sequence. For example, with the Ohtsuki printer, you can
set a specific output mode using an automatic set-up sequence. The
Ohtsuki's default is to accept grade 2 text input, and output grade 2
braille and back-translated print on alternate lines. Suppose you want
either braille output or print output. You then configure the Ohtsuki
printer twice; once with an automatic set-up sequence of When your printer always needs a left margin, you can
define it with an automatic set-up sequence. For help with establishing an
automatic set-up sequence for your printer, see Part 4.
Another example deals with the Super Serial Card.
BEX's standard parameters set the Super Serial Card at 9600 baud. Suppose
you want to use one Super Serial Card to interface a VersaBraille at 9600
baud, and a Macintosh at 19,200 baud. When you configure, you include an
automatic set-up sequence for both interfaces: For the Macintosh, you
enter control-A then type Since a BEX chapter can contain any of the 128 ASCII
characters, you can also write a BEX chapter with the same information as
you might put in a set-up sequence. Then, to effect the instructions, you
print this set-up chapter before any chapters you print to
the device. The big advantage to a set-up sequence is that BEX always
remembers to send it. When you are experimenting with various commands, do
your trial and error research with BEX chapters. When you know what works,
enter it as an automatic set-up sequence in your configuration.
At the Learner Level, we focussed on three printer
classes: G - Generic, B - Brailler, and L - Large Print. In that
discussion, we covered all the basic issues in configuring a printer. In
Part 2, we covered two more printer classes: V - Voice devices, and P -
Paperless braillers. As always, you can press <CR> at any question
to get a help message. If you're wondering what Auto
linefeed or Pause on form feed means, go back to
Section 3 of the Learner Level.
The BEX Interface Guide has pages and pages about
printers, including the wonders of Dipner Dots and details about the
LaserWriter. In the next paragraphs, we present a method to help you
establish margins for your printer. See Section 7, Part 10, for examples
of Review class printers.
When you configure a large print printer, BEX does
some calculations for you. BEX uses a combination of point size (the size
of the letters) and extra spacing to calculate carriage width; the answer
for linespacing affects the calculation of form length. To get these
values, press <CR> at the prompt.
In Learner Level Section 5, Part 3, we discussed how
to use the These four chapters print reference grids using BEX's
horizontal and vertical numbering system. Enlisting the assistance of a
sighted person, if necessary, you can ascertain the appropriate horizontal
and vertical numbers you need for your printer. See Learner Level Section
5, Part 3 for instructions on how to configure your printer for testing.
The chapter named V GRID provides you with a guide to
set form length, top-of-form, and top margins. Establish a workable
landmark on your printer, as discussed in Learner Level Section 5, Part 2.
Then print the V GRID chapter to this printer.
Where line 1 appears in this printout is where BEX
prints the first line of every page. When your test sheet shows line 1 too
high on the paper, then you have several ways to establish more
aesthetically pleasing top and bottom margins.
At the Learner Level, we describe two ways to set top
margins: by using $$mt# and by pressing the line feed button.
The third way to establish a top margin is to use an
automatic set-up sequence to send a top margin command to your printer.
Your printer manual should have the exact sequence you need. For example,
you can use the printer's internal top margin command, if it has one,
for an automatic set-up sequence. The ImageWriter doesn't, but the Diablo
630 does. To set a top margin of three lines, you enter five characters:
As we've stressed, to maintain an accurate top-of-form
you must never advance the paper by rolling the platen. When you are done
printing a document, turn the printer off-line, and In addition to establishing the appropriate top
margin, the V GRID chapter can provide you with the appropriate value for
your form length. Once you've decided on the value for your top margin,
find the set-up sequence for that command, and insert it into the V GRID
chapter. Turn your printer off and then on to reset it so that the new
command will work. Establish your correct top-of-form, then print the V
GRID chapter again.
To analyze your form length, first fold the paper in
half the long way (so that the top and bottom edges meet). Note which grid
line number towards the bottom of the sheet meets line number 1. Use this
number as your form length when you configure. When you specify that
number as your form length, you have equal top and bottom margins.
The chapters named RP GRID, LP GRID, and LONG GRID
provide a ruler for you to determine left margin and carriage width for
your printer. Use the grid chapter that is appropriate for you: The RP
GRID chapter prints six rulers; this chapter is designed for regular print
printers. The LP GRID chapter prints three rulers; it is designed for
large print printers. The first ruler in these two chapters prints 39
characters, the second prints 49 characters, and so on up to 59 characters
for LP GRID and 89 characters for RP GRID. The LONG GRID chapter prints
one long ruler with 159 characters for printers with condensed print. Use
the RP GRID, LP GRID, or LONG GRID chapters once for each different
character size or pitch you plan to use.
Once you have your sample RP GRID, LP GRID or LONG
GRID printouts, analyze them to determine left margin and carriage width.
Learner Level Section 5, Part 3 tell what the rulers should look like and
how to interpret the rulers.
The left edge of the ruler is BEX's position
zero. On some printers, this position zero appears at the left edge
of the paper, which means that BEX's position zero would make a very ugly
printed page. When you are unhappy with the left margin on the test
printout, get a real ruler. Measure a nice margin of one inch
or seven-eighths of an inch and make a pencil mark at this point. Compare
the pencil mark with the grid ruler.
Suppose the pencil mark occurs at position number 8;
you now know that BEX's left margin of eight positions the printhead at a
good place. You can use this value of 8 to set a left margin, using $$ml8
when you print. Include the $$ml8 command at the start of every chapter
you print. Or you can use a setup chapter that contains
escape sequences that set margins for your printer.
It's fastest to establish an automatic set-up
sequence to set your left margin. Check your printer manual for the exact
sequence; different printers use different strategies. Some printers let
you enter a numerical value for the left margin. On the ImageWriter, for
example, you set a left margin of eight by sending it five characters:
Other printers use a command meaning "set the left
margin at this point." For the Diablo 630, you set a margin of eight by
sending eight spaces followed by a two character command:
Once you've discovered the appropriate printer control
codes, create a BEX chapter that contains just those characters. Copy the
GRID chapter you are working with to a When you're satisfied with the left margin, you then
reconfigure this printer, and answer Y to the When your printer uses a command like the
Diablo's, it's possible for your left margin to start creeping
leftward because the effect of the set-up sequence is cumulative. To
prevent this from happening, include the "master reset" or "remote reset"
command at the beginning of your set-up sequence. For the Diablo, this is
When you've set the left margin with an automatic
setup sequence, you need to set a carriage width to work with that
sequence. After you reconfigure, print your horizontal grid chapter again,
this time with your left margin. When you've set the left margin, you need
to set a carriage width to work with that left margin. Take your printed
copy of RP GRID, LP GRID, or LONG GRID (or MY GRID) and find the first
ruler that is too long. This is the ruler you use to measure your carriage
width. Take a real ruler and measure a distance from the
right edge of the paper that's equal to the left margin, and mark
this position. Determine the value for your carriage width by counting
over from the nearest vertical bar. This value is the number you use for
your carriage width.
For example, suppose you have a left margin of
one-half an inch. You measure one-half inch over from the right edge of
the paper, making a mark along the first ruler that's too long. This
mark falls at the third lowercase o after the vertical bar
Now you reconfigure, using the values you obtained
from the tests for carriage width and form length.
Inevitably, some problems may occur when you are
configuring. We cover some of them here. If you are having problems saving
the configuration file onto disk, see Learner Level Section 3, Part 8.
When you encounter other problems, call our Technical Hotline for help.
BEX has many methods for choosing which chapter or
chapters to work with. We use the term default data drive to
mean the drive whose number appears as the default when you press D at any
menu. When you have a two-drive system, your default data drive is always
drive 2. When you have a one-drive system, your default data drive is
always drive 1. At the Master Level, you can have many more data drives,
so this concept is more important there.
At the Learner Level, BEX prompts The next step after you specify a chapter or chapters,
is either directing action on the source chapter list
(editing, page menu options, printing, or killing) or providing BEX with a
target chapter naming method to use in creating new chapters
on disk. You have the responsibility of checking to make sure there's
enough room on the disk for the target chapters). Press As we mentioned in Section 1, we assume you are
acquainted with the Learner Level features. The User Level builds on these
features, adding more flexibility in terms of specifying drives and
chapters.
All BEX prompts are shorter at the User Level. Instead
of To obtain a subset of all the chapters on your default
data drive, enter a slash followed by one character at the When you are systematic about naming your chapters,
you can use them for your subsets. For example, if you always end your
grade 2 braille chapter names with the digit 2, BEX can present a list
restricted to braille chapters when you specify You precede the slash with a number to specify drive
1. You can enter You can get BEX to scan more than one drive by
preceding the drive number with the plus sign. You must enter a drive
number after the plus sign; a plus sign alone just returns you to the
menu.
For example, you wish to choose from a numbered list
of the chapters on both drives 1 and 2. Enter You can repeatedly specify the same drive using
different restricted scans: At the When you don't want to make another chapter selection,
press <CR> alone at the With many options, BEX creates new chapters. Working
with the chapter or chapters you specify, BEX changes the data in some way
and writes it to disk. Whenever you are only Single letter codes tell BEX how to modify the source
chapter name to create the target chapter name. Now that you know about
restricted scanning with the slash, you understand why the target chapter
naming methods affect the final characters of BEX chapter names. A summary
of your options appears when you enter You may precede any of these five letter codes
with a digit 1 or 2 for drive 1 or 2. When you don't precede the method
with a digit, the chapters are written to the default data drive.
Watch out! You can get into big trouble when you
combine scanning two drives with a target chapter naming method. When you
precede the code letter with the drive number, then all the
source chapters, no matter which drive they came from, end up on the
target drive. Make sure you have room for these target chapters! At the
Master Level, you can have up to eight disk drives--you'll learn about
more target chapter naming methods to use.
Whenever you create a new chapter, you must make sure
there's room for it on the disk. A standard BEX data disk has 528
sectors available for your text. Each sector can contain 256 characters.
Theoretically, then, each disk could contain 528 times 256 or 135,168
characters. However, the way BEX stores data uses approximately 15 per
cent of the disk space for overhead. A BEX chapter containing 30
4096-character pages would just fill one disk, for a total of 122,880
characters per disk.
To find out the number of free sectors on your disk,
press To avoid disk-space problems, limit your pages to 3300
characters. Limit the total number of pages in all chapters on a disk to
30. Always move to a new disk when To get a rough estimate of how many pages you can have
per sector, you have to do a little math. An average braille page has
It's not easy to state how many characters fit on
one disk. Page size, number of pages, and number of chapters all interact
to determine how many sectors are used. Every directory file uses three
sectors, and every page file uses two sectors, plus one sector for each
256 characters (these are the 15 per cent overhead). This means that two
chapters with the same number of total characters can occupy very
different amounts of disk space, depending on the number of pages in each
chapter.
Chapter Chapter Because each directory file requires three sectors,
each chapter While each BEX page can contain 4096 characters, you
should never make a page that full. You always want to leave enough room
for additions and modifications. Particularly when you back-translate a
great deal, you must leave enough room for the expansion of contractions.
For these reasons, limit your pages to around 3300 characters. A 3300
character page occupies approximately 15 sectors on disk. Following the
rule of thumb above, limit each disk to 30 pages. 30 times 15 equals 450
sectors, leaving 78 sectors free for directory files and later fiddling
with your data.
When you use options where text is brought in from
other systems, such as options I - Input through Slot, R - Read textfiles
to chapters and F - From VersaBraille, BEX determines the size of the
pages. These sizes vary depending on the option. With Input through slot,
BEX creates pages of about 3840 characters for print text, and pages of
about 3072 for braille text. With Read textfiles to chapters, BEX uses the
3300 character page limit. With From VersaBraille, BEX stores a number of
complete VersaBraille pages into each BEX page, so the resulting page size
varies with the size of your VersaBraille pages.
As you create each page in the Editor, BEX creates a
page file on disk. BEX names this page file by adding a two-character
extension to the chapter name: a period plus a letter of the alphabet. BEX
starts out with When you cut pages in the Editor or manipulate pages
with options on the Page Menu, the numerical order of the pages no longer
matches the alphabetical order of the page files on disk.
Most BEX options create target page files with the
same extension as the source page files. However, two BEX options create
target chapters whose page files are relred so that How DOS 3.3 manages disk files determines the order of
chapters on a disk. The position of the directory files on disk determines
the chapter order when BEX presents a numbered list of chapters on that
disk. When you want to create a specific order of chapters on disk, use
any option which creates new chapters to copy the chapters onto disk in
that order.
For example, suppose you want three braille chapters
in the order
To maintain your chapter order, be careful which
options you Once you get to the Master Level, you'll find that
editing with the Ready chapter is slightly addictive, because it's so
fast. The Ready chapter has a maximum of six pages on the Apple IIc and
IIe, and a maximum of 20 pages on the Apple IIgs. You can safely use the
Ready chapter to edit longer chapters but you lose some speed. This means
that writing chapters of six pages or less, or 20 pages or less on the
Apple IIgs, allows maximum use of the Ready features.
An ideal chapter of six 3300-character
pages uses approximately 93 sectors on disk. (Around 15 sectors for each
page file, and three sectors for the directory file.) This means that you
can have five of these chapters on a 528-sector disk. Since you can
readily chain together options like printing, translating, and replacing,
and since, at the Master Level, you can have up to eight disk drives,
these guidelines won't limit you too much.
New Editor Features
Back Translator From Grade 2 Braille into Print
Greatly Expanded Printing Capability
Replace Characters
Part 3: How to Advance to the User Level
Part 1: BEX's Two Roles
G - Grade 2 translator
you can press G. The Echo stops talking, and passes the G to
BEX, which loads the Grade 2 translator. The next thing you hear is
Grade 2 translator
Part 3: The Screen Channel
Controlling Screen Channel
Which
printer:
you enter S <CR>
to print to the screen
in the size you defined in your configuration. When you follow the S with
one of the ten screen-size letters, BEX prints to that size screen. For
example, you have configured with 40-column screen. You want to print text
to the 20-column screen. Enter SL <CR>
at the
Which printer:
prompt. (Details in Section 6.) At the Master
Level, you learn how to change the screen display at the menus, too.
Deciding Which Screen to Use
Advancing to the Next Screen of Data
Controlling Large Print Screen Display
Main Menu:
prompt. To initiate scrolling, press <CR> at any Menu prompt. Now,
as the characters scroll by, depress the solid-Apple (or Option) key.
Press and release a digit between 1 and 9, then release the solid-Apple
(or Option) key. The new rate lasts until you change it or turn off the
power.
Temporarily suspend large print output
Main Menu:
prompt. However, you do hear
the low boop that means BEX is waiting for a menu choice.
Part 4: Three BEX Functions that Suppress Large
Print Screen
Transformation chapter name:
prompt, the HI-RES screen
display disappears. The last Continue? Y
prompt is shown in
40-column screen; you must press <CR> to begin replacing.
There's no conflict when you directly key in changes.
Which printer:
prompt, the Apple screen shows random lines.
Once the printout is done, the menu prompt returns in large print.
() One Disk Drive: BEX needs to load the large
print font from the program disk every time it prints. You must copy the
font files to your data disk. More details in Appendix 3.
Part 5: The Voice Channel
+V
to a printer destination, the text is sent to both the
printer and to the voice channel.
Controlling the Voice Channel at Menus
Controlling the Voice Channel in the Editor
Sending Commands to the Braille Channel
<control-N> ; <control-O>
ensures that
the VersaBraille II display shows uppercase with vibrating pins. More
information on this feature is provided in Section 3.
Part 7: Alternative Input Devices
() Apple IIgs: Braille keyboard is not available
with a true Apple IIgs keyboard. Braille keyboard is always
available through the Apple IIe keyboard, even when you obtain a
"performance upgrade" to change the IIe to a IIgs.
Part 1: Getting Access to the Configuration
Dialogue
Enter configuration:
prompt. When
BEX loads an existing configuration from disk, it's loading a list of
your input/output preferences. When you are establishing a
new configuration, BEX does not yet know about your I/O preferences. When
you have an Echo or SlotBuster voice device, BEX can speak the
configuration dialogue. But when you don't have an integral voice device
and can't see the screen, you must use one of two "bootstrap" codes--that
is, codes to get your computer and voice device going--to get output of
the configuration questions in an accessible medium:
Enter
configuration:
prompt. For example, to establish a User Level
configuration and send output to an Echo GP in slot 2 during the
configuration process, enter *2<CR>
at the Enter
configuration:
prompt.
*V5<CR>
at the Enter configuration:
prompt.
Part 2: Overview of New Questions
Do you have a remote keyboard?
The voice channel
Do you have a tape-based VersaBraille?
Do you have a remote serial device to input text
through slot?
The screen display
The printer section
? <CR>
at the Which printer:
prompt, your
class V printer is listed as a printer 40 by 0. Don't configure your Echo
as a class V printer: BEX won't let you. The class V printer configuration
is meant for high-quality voice devices hooked up to a slot, such as a
DECtalk.
Disk drives
? <CR>
at the Enter configuration:
prompt. The name of your default configuration (the one with <CR> as
its name) is listed as DEFAULT
in the list of configurations.
Enter it as <CR>, as you specified in your configuration.
Part 3: Automatic Set-up Sequences
RUN
at the BASIC prompt. For printers,
BEX sends the sequence every time you specify the printer number at the
Which printer:
prompt.
What You Type
<ESC>
B
for braille only output, and once with an automatic set-up
sequence of <ESC> P
for print only output.
15 B <CR>
to change the baud
rate to 19,200. For the VersaBraille, you enter control-A then type
R <CR>
to reset the Super Serial Card to its default
switch settings.
Alternatives to Automatic Set-up Sequences
The horizontal and vertical test grids
RP GRID
chapter, the LP GRID
chapter,
the LONG GRID
chapter, and the V GRID
chapter on
your BEXtras disk to establish margins and a carriage width for your
printer. What we did not cover was how to use these chapters to determine
values to use in an automatic set-up sequence for your printer. In this
part we will go through the same sequence again, only with the aim of
using automatic set-up sequences.
Establishing a top margin
<CR> <CR> <CR> <ESC> T
To enter this command as an automatic set-up
sequence, you go through the configuration process until you come to the
printer section. When you are prompted for an automatic set-up sequence,
you type in three returns plus <ESC> T
as your
sequence:
Establish an automatic set-up sequence for PRINTER ONE?
Y <CR>
Type it EXACTLY. Press Delete key to end sequence:
<CR> <CR> <CR> <ESC> T <DEL>
Using these characters as an automatic set-up
sequence insures that the Diablo 630 always has an aesthetic top margin.
Establishing form length
Printing the Horizontal Test Grids
<ESC> L 008
<space> <space> <space> <space>
<space> <space> <space> <space> <ESC> 9
MY GRID
chapter.
Insert the control codes at the start of MY GRID. Turn Establish an automatic
set-up sequence?
question. When you have established an automatic
set-up sequence for your top margin, enter both that sequence and the
sequence for your left margin. Type the printer control codes exactly, and
BEX automatically sets the left margin (and top margin) each time you
print to this printer.
<ESC> <CR>
but you must find the command for
your printer in its manual.
Setting the carriage width
Part 5: Troubleshooting Configuration Problems
Do you want pause on form
feed
question.
Part 1: The Story Thus Far
Drive number
or chapter name:
when it wants to know which chapter to work with.
You either type the chapter name, or enter 1
or
2
to scan the disk in the drive. Precede a chapter name with
the number of the drive you want BEX to scan, if the drive is other than
the default data drive. When you tell BEX to scan a drive, BEX presents a
numbered list of chapters to work with. BEX asks Use entire list?
N
and you enter Y <CR>
to use every chapter. You
can accept the N default by pressing <CR>. When you accept the N
default, BEX prompts you to choose chapters by number. You enter the
chapter numbers; when you are finished, you enter <CR> alone to the
Chapter number:
prompt. You then move to the next step in the
option.
#
at any menu prompt to get the number of free sectors on your data disk. A
full explanation of how much space on disk a chapter uses is provided in
Part 4.
Reprompting for Chapters
Drive number or chapter name:
BEX prompts for Drive
or chapter:
Typing a chapter name individually produces different
results at the User Level. After finding this chapter, BEX prompts you
with Drive or chapter:
again. At this point, you can type
another chapter name or enter a drive number. This reprompting lets you
mix and match three methods for specifying chapters: You can specify a
list of chapters entirely by name, preceding chapter names with drive
numbers where needed; you can combine specifying chapters by name and
specifying a drive to scan; or you can just specify a drive to scan by
entering the drive number.
Restrictive Scanning with the Slash
Drive or
chapter:
prompt. The character following the slash is the last
character of the chapter names you wish to specify. BEX presents a
numbered list restricted to those chapters whose last character matches
the character after the slash.
/2
at the
Drive or chapter:
prompt.
1/X
or 2/X
to scan chapters
ending in X on drives 1 or 2, or /X
with no
number to scan the default data drive. You can use the slash alone at the
Drive or chapter:
prompt / <CR>
at any Drive or chapter:
prompt builds a numbered list of all chapters on your default data drive,
drive 2.
Scanning More than One Drive with the Plus Sign
+1
at the first
Drive or chapter:
prompt. BEX presents the numbered list of
chapters on drive 1 and prompts you to choose by chapter number. When you
finish this list, BEX prompts Select more chapters
and then
asks Drive or chapter:
again. At this point, you have exactly
the same range of choices as you do at the first Drive or
chapter:
prompt.
Drive or chapter
prompt,
enter +2/Q
and get a list of all the chapters ending in
Q. Make your choices, then BEX prompts: Select more
chapters
again. Enter +2/Z
and get a list of all the
chapters ending in Z. Make choices from this list, and you
get still another Select more chapters
prompt. Just for
variety, enter +1/M
and get a list of the chapters that end
in M on drive 1.
Drive or chapter:
prompt. BEX
stops asking for chapters and moves to the next step in the process.
Part 3: Target Chapter Naming Methods
Target chapter name:
and you type it in.
You can precede a target chapter name with a drive number to tell BEX
where to write the chapter. When you've specified a list of chapters, BEX
prompts Target chapter naming method:
When you use the name
of a chapter that's already on the disk, then the text in the new
target chapter overwrites the existing chapter.
Methods Available
? <CR>
at the
Target chapter naming method:
prompt. They are:
Part 4: Managing Your Data: Notes on Disks,
Chapters, and Pages
#
at any menu prompt. The number of sectors free also
appears on the first line of a DOS catalog.
The rule of thumb
FS = 100
or less. Use
option W - Whole disk catalog on the Page Menu to get the total picture
about a disk. Whole disk catalog tells you how many pages are in each
chapter, and the total number of characters on the disk. When the total is
near 100,000, switch to a new data disk.
More Nitty-Gritty Details
Two chapters compared
SKINNY
contains three pages, and
each page contains 3584 characters. 3584 divided by 256 characters per
sector yields 14 sectors. Add two sectors overhead for each page file, to
make 16 times three or 48 sectors used for page files. Add three sectors
for the directory file, for a grand total of 51 sectors used to store
10,752 characters.
BLOATO
also contains 10,752
characters, but it requires 63 sectors. BLOATO has nine pages: eight pages
contain 1280 characters each, and one page contains just 512 characters.
1280 divided by 256 yields five sectors; add two sectors overhead for each
of these page files to get seven times eight or 56 sectors. 512 divided by
256 yields two sectors, adding two sectors overhead for this little page
file, a total of four sectors. Finally, three more sectors for the
directory file means three plus four plus 56 for a grand total of 63
sectors.
Page Size
Page Lettering
.A
then takes the next available letter of
the alphabet.
PAPER
that contains two pages; BEX creates the PAPER.A
page file
for page 1 and the PAPER.B
page file for page 2. You edit
page 1 and enter control-C control-P. BEX uses the next available letter
of the alphabet for the new page 2; its page file is named
PAPER.C
.A
is
page 1, .B
is page 2, and so forth. These options are options
M - Merge pages, and A - Adjust page sizes on the Second Menu. Option F -
Fix chapter directory on the Second Menu does the opposite: it renumbers
pages according to their letter extension.
Ordering Chapters on a Disk
CHAPTER1
CHAPTER2
CHAPTER3
However, your print chapters are in the order
CHAPTER2
CHAPTER1
CHAPTER3
When you translate with the Grade 2 translator,
specify the print chapters by number, in the order CHAPTER1, CHAPTER2,
CHAPTER3. BEX translates them in the specified order, and the braille
chapters will be in the correct order on disk.
The Lure of the Ready Chapter