EYES EYES is a nonsharable program which runs in 1K of core, designed to run on the DECsystem-10. The program can input ASCII files and convert them to braille. This is done by creating an LPT file consisting of blanks and periods in the appropriate positions to construct the braille cells for each character in each line. This file can then be queued to a specially prepared printer (see below). The program can convert any type of ASCII file including source and data files, LST files, HLP files and log files, and can be run in either timesharing or batch mode. Operating Instruction To call the EYES program, issue the monitor command: .R EYES If EYES resides on device SYS:, or .RUN EYES Iif EYES resides on your disk area. EYES will then request the name of the file to be brailled. Give it the file information in the following form: dev:file.ext[ppn] When dev: is the device on which the file is residing and can be omitted if the device is DSK:, and [ppn] is the project-programmer number of the file and may be omitted if it is the user's own. Then EYES asks whether or not the file is a data file, to which the user should respond "Y" for yes or "N" for no. If the user responds with "N" then all blanks in the file will be ignored. If the response is "Y" then the blanks will be treated as any other character, producing an empty cell. Thus, unless the file is a data file where the spacing within the file is essential, the spaces should be deleted (e.g. a response of "N") to conserve disk storage. After the conversion is complete, EYES will ask the user if there are more files he wishes to convert to which he should respond "Y" if more conversion is desired or "N" to exit. --1-- Because of the nature of braille code, the program requires quite a large amount of disk blocks to create the braille file for relatively large source files, programs should be segmented into subprogram files and stored on a device other than DSK: whenever possible to give EYES more room to create its file. Also a conversion file should be queued to a printer immediately following conversion for the same reason. The LPT file which is created by EYES has an extension of LPT, but a random filename chosen by the monitor. To eliminate this potential problem in distinguishing between files, the RENAME command can be used prior to queueing, for example: .RENAME PROG1.LPT=*.LPT EYES ignores all tabs, thus, PIP should be used to replace any tabs with multiple blanks with the "N" switch prior to a conversion for any files in which spaces are significant if the file originally contains any tabs. Since one line in a file may take a number of braille lines, over printing is not supported. EYES has a braille cell for all 128 7-bit ASCII characters. This is done according to the following scheme: -The alphabetic characters A-Z have the standard braille coding. All lower case letters are treated as upper case. -The digits 0-9 correspond to the letters A-Z but are all lowered 1 row within the cell which is standard for other braille converters. The control characters, line feed, vertical tab and form feed have their standard functions and nulls, carriage returns and tabs are ignored. Escape is echoed as a dollar sign and all other control characters are printed in arrow format, requiring two cells. Blanks (when significant) are represented by empty cells. --2-- The remainder of the special characters are assigned a unique code which the user must become familiar with. Any duplications of codes will be distinguished by the context in which they are used. The special characters and the positions of the dots within the cells are: Exclamation Point --1-2-5-6 ! Double Quote --5-6 " Number Sign --3-4-5-6 # Dollar Sign --1-3-4-5 $ Percent Sign --1-2-4-5-6 % Ampersand --1-2-3-4-6 & Single Quote --6 ' Open Parenthesis --1-2-6 ( Close Parenthesis --3-4-5 ) Asterik --1-6 * Plus Sign --3-4-6 + Comma --3 , Minus Sign (Dash) --3-6 - Period --4-6 . Slash --3-4 / Colon --4-5-6 : Semicolon --4-5 ; Less than sign --2-4-6 < Equal sign --1-5-6 = Greater than sign --4 > Question Mark --1-2-3-4-5-6 ? At sign --5 @ Left Bracket --1-2-3-4-5 [ Vertical Bar --1-6 ! Right Bracket --2-3-4-5-6 ] Not sign --2-3-4-5 - Delete --6 Backslash --1-6 \ Left arrow (under score)--2-3-4-6 _ Prime --6 ' Up arrow --1-4-5-6 ^ When the braille file is printed, the paper must be turned over in order to read the raised dots. To raise the dots, the line printer must be specially equipped. A piece of elastic must be streched over the hammers between the hammers and the paper. The best results are produced by using 3/4" -1" wide piece of garter elastic. If no brackets are mounted on the printer to install this elastic band, they can easily be fashioned from paper clips or the like. The printer should be set at 8 lines/inch and the thinnest paper possible should be used.