DOTSYS III: a portable Braille translator

Abstract

The subject of Braille translation is not a widely familiar one, so that a brief introduction to that topic would seem t o be in order before taking up DOTSYS III o Most people know what Braille is in general a coding system employing raise d dots so that the sense of touch alone suffices to read . However, contrary to the impression one gets from those little cards , the most widely used codes are not "substitution ciphers" that is, the Braille equivalent of a given "inkprint" text i s generally not a simple transliteration but rather a kind of translation . This is because the rules for transcription involve no t only the spelling of words, but also their syllabification and pronunciation . And since these occasionally vary with th e meaning of the word (e .g ., the verb "do" and the musical note "do") the transcriber most understand what he is transcribing , at least at a superficial semantic level . This is characteristic of translation, although of course the process is not nearl y as difficult as the translation of one natural language to another .