Re: lynx-dev new tables idea for SoCR

[Heather Stern]

address@hidden wrote:
> Heather, I like the basic idea of a stair-step format in lieu of tabulation.
> 
> Tables-to-audio is a pretty hot topic.
> 
> The new Home Page Reader from IBM sets a high standard for making tables 
> comprehensible in audio.  You might want to get one and get the idea of 
> how it works.

Does it work in Linux?  I'll go look.  I suppose I better get around to making
sound work on my box again - I installed a new rev and haven't gotten around 
to dispensable services yet ;)

> As far as experience, I think I have more than Larry and I have just enough
> to know I don't know enough.  By this I mean, put the page mockups in 
> plain text files on the web somewhere and ask politely on 
> address@hidden and maybe on the blinux list at redhat what people 
> think of the options.  I hope Lloyd will agree that is a good plan.

I like this idea, I'll endeavor to copy the relevant post from myself (easy,
I keep local archives) and split it into the two samples so I can do that.

> There is also some information on table transforms findable from 
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/UA/ -- I am not sure what shape that is in at the
> moment.
>
> Did you review the output of the table linearizing filter from Daniel 
> Dardailler?  You should be able to find that starting at
> http://www.w3.org/WAI/ER/ . 

Most of the content at W3C is a little bit over my technical threshold for 
pleasure reading.  And I hadn't heard of the other;  I was merely expanding
on my own noodling.  I'll take a look at these sometime this weekend.

> All of the formats you are talking about should (when the styles work is 
> done) use style-settable indents, because Braille is extremely chary with
> indents.  As in one character is given grudgingly.  The logic would work
> fine but five or eight character indents would _destroy_ the acceptability
> of the result for a Braille user.

As I'm sure you know by now I'm a big fan of the user getting the option.
I wanted it an option anyway;  even though my site is tiny there's a religious
argument here about whether tabs should be minimum-visible (2-3), half-size
(4) or unadjusted (8).  I gave up caring but we'd surely be having different
settings in everybody's config.  Obviously then it would be simple for braille
people to ask for 1-space "tabs".  But it sounds like they might favor the 
signalled row start and cell boundary model, because they could assign single 
character boundaries, and take the rest free-flowing.