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- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ames!olivea!isc-br!bunker!wtm
- From: dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)
- Newsgroups: misc.handicap
- Subject: Re: spanish
- Message-ID: <23435@handicap.news>
- Date: 29 Jul 92 15:43:54 GMT
- Sender: wtm@bunker.shel.isc-br.com
- Reply-To: dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil (Jude DaShiell)
- Lines: 27
- Approved: wtm@hnews.fidonet.org
- X-Fidonet: Blink Talk Conference
-
- Index Number: 23435
-
- No grade two braille is very different in spanish than it is in
- english and this also holds true for other languages as well.
- I have had occassion to sample some of the grade 2 foreign braille
- and found I couldn't read it as soon as the writer switched into
- grade two.
- There's a good reason for this too and cryptanalysis would support
- this, different languages have different high frequency words and even
- letter usages. The Hawaiian language is a striking example since its
- alphabet has only twelve letters and the language is far
- heavier into the use of vowels than is english.
- One of the problems with our own grade two braille system and by extension
- grade three braille system since three is an extension of two is that
- cryptanalysts were not on the panel that created the forms of
- braille so the most efficient use of contractions wasn't accomplished.
- Grade two was claimed by its proponents to save 50% in writing over
- grade one braille when in fact its at most 10% to 12% savings.
- That's an illustration of just how bad a job was done by B.A.N.A. earlier
- this century. Congress isn't into loosing money so B.A.N.A. has been told
- to go back to the drawing board and get it right this time.
- Let's hope that cryptanalysts and philologists are on their panel this time
- as well as ergonomic specialists who are specialists in time and
- motion studies. Maybe they'll get it right this time but I'll not hold my
- breath.
-
- jude <dashiell@nadc.nadc.navy.mil>
-