RE: TTG's BBS and Applic.Notes

["Bob Brody" rabrody@xxxxxxxx]

On 16 Jan 97 at 16:40, Thomas A. Robertson wrote:

> TTG should remember that one of the reasons some of us like
> XyWrite is because being ASCII and having a minimum of overhead
> coding, it lets us get closer to the essence of what we are
> trying to say--particularly those of us who have to struggle with
> wrapping words and meaning around ideas we are often describing
> for the first time (for us) and want others to know as well as
> possible.

Excellent point, TR. I just hit the site with frames turned off
in my browser and got the [Include Bot] message with nothing else.
 I image they'll be putting something in there so people with
frames off or frames challenged browsers will be taken to a
different presentation. That's actually a far cry more than
people who merely put "Sorry, you need to use a browser that
supports frames in order to view our web site" for the NOFRAMES
command! Screw them and the modem they rode in on. I can't
offhand think of a single reason why frames are necessary. Purely
cosmetic. But I get the impression the TTG site will include an
alternative. That's at least how it should be done.

As you know, I do volunteer work teaching blind students
computers and word processing. One of the reasons XyWrite (and
Nota Bene) is a favorite is because of the ASCII format (i.e.,
text based) and the formatting deltas so that their voice system
(screen reading synthesizer) can easily tell them what's going on.
 Text, or character-based, is therefore rather important to them.
It's rather important to a lot of people since not everyone has a
PPP connection, especially in other parts of the world where such
access is not as readily and/or inexpensively accessible. Ditto
users at terminals, even here in the U.S. (Notwithstanding the
web is so much faster in text mode anyway and if I'm looking for
text, such as a book review or whatever, I don't need to be in
graphical mode to sit here tapping my fingers on the desk while a
dozen blinking advertisements download.)

It would be ironic that the home of XyWrite on the web would
exclude text-based browsers (Lynx, W3, for instance) or graphical
browsers in text mode. However, I don't get the impression that
that's their intention. Hopefully their web site will convey the
fact that there are still some excellent character-based word
processors available for those so seeking. I would ask our
fellow GUI users to close their eyes and trying operating via
mouse, then they'll know what a blind person has to deal with,
among other things. Of course, software, even graphical, can be
written with "hooks" and such to make them "speech friendly" but
that requires a desire to do so. Hell, even Herb Tyson didn't
want to let his book out in disk file (so blind people could have
an instant reference, already written in XyWrite), so go figure.

Bob