[Blindtlk] Fwd: Announcing NFBTRANS and WinBT 2.0 - a free, open source Windows braille translator

[Steve Jacobson]

With help from a number of people, we have extended the life of NFBTRANS and the WINTRANS interface that 
allowed one to translate files into contracted braille from Windows.  The old version would no longer run on Windows 
7 64-bit computers, but this new version does.  As many of you already know, NFBTRANS allows one to place 
formatting commands into plain text files to create reasonably good contracted braille.  It does not directly handle 
HTML, DAISY or Microsoft word files as do the commercially available translators, and as does John Boyer's 
LIBLOUIS project and as his Braille Blaster project will.  However, this software can provide an alternative that can fill 
in the gaps with a little work.  

Jamal Mazrui has assisted in creating a better installation procedure and has pulled together some documentation.  
Below is his note along with a number of links to documentation and other resources for those who feel they wish to 
make changes to the program.  However, if you are interested in just downloading the updated version, you can find it 
at 

http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.exe

A zip archive containing the same files is available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.zip

This is open source software and is not officially supported by the National federation of the blind or any other 
individual.  Still, there are number of people on these lists who can try to answer questions.  

If you are interested in learning more about the more ambitious Braille Blaster project led by John Boyer, check out

http://www.abilitiessoft.com/

This project has the potential of producing braille directly from Microsoft Word, XML and DAISY files and is capable of 
doing so now if one has a little technical knowhow.  

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

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Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2011 20:33:39 -0400
From: Jamal Mazrui <empower at smart.net>
Subject: Announcing WinBT 2.0 - a free, open source Windows braille translator


Now available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.exe

WinBT 2.0 is an updated distribution of the NFBTrans braille translator 
(BT), and the associated WinTrans graphical user interface (GUI).  The 
original programmers are no longer active in the project, and the 
wintrans-bt.org web site is discontinued.  Maintenance of NFBTrans has 
been led by Steve Jacobson as Vice President of the NFB in Computer 
Science.  He recruited additional programmers, and improved the default 
configuration settings of NFBTrans.

The original author of WinTrans chose not to reveal his or her identity, 
using the name "Anonymous John" instead.  Since several years had 
elapsed since then (2003), we tried to find the author in case he or she 
now wished to be publicly acknowledged.  Ultimately, we found him via 
Tom Dimeo, who had introduced WinTrans to the world in a podcast of the 
Main Menu program by ACB Radio (an audio tutorial included in this 
distribution).  The two of them communicated about this new effort, and 
George McCoy has now authorized us to disclose that he is the one who 
authored WinTrans.

Recent discussion about improving NFBTrans has occurred on the email 
list called "ProgrammingBlind," to which one can subscribe through the 
web site
http://FreeLists.org

The NFBTrans code was ported and recompiled by Tyler Littlefield, using 
Microsoft Visual C++ 2008, a free Express Edition of which is available at
http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/products/2008-editions/express

The new build resulted in a 32-bit rather than 16-bit executable, thus 
allowing it to run under 64-bit Windows, which, unlike prior Windows 
versions, does not run 16-bit programs.  The Visual Studio solution 
file, NFBTrans.sln, contains compiler configuration information that 
allows a developer to easily recompile the C code.  Anyone who finds 
ways of improving the code,  configuration settings, or documentation is 
encouraged to contribute such improvements back to the community.

The WinTrans source code, WinTrans.bas, was recompiled by Jamal Mazrui 
using PowerBASIC 10.0, a commercial compiler available at
http://powerbasic.com

He also improved the WinTrans installer using Inno Setup 5, which is 
freely available at
http://InnoSetup.org

The script file, wbtsetup.iss, gives InnoSetup instructions for building 
the installer, wbtsetup.exe.  It creates a desktop shortcut for 
launching the WinBT dialog, with an optional hotkey assignment, 
Alt+Control+B (for braille translator).  The installer also creates a 
WinBT program group in the Windows Start/Programs menu with options for 
launching the program, reading the documentation, playing an audio 
tutorial, or uninstalling the program.  By default, the documentation is 
opened at the end of the installation process, and the audio tutorial 
may optionally be played then as well.    The program may also be 
launched by entering "WinBT" in the Windows Start/Run dialog 
(capitalization does not matter).

The original distribution files for NFBTrans and WinTrans, nfbtr774.zip 
and winbt.zip (renamed from winbt.exe), are included in the WinBT 
program directory.  Also included there is the first public release of 
the WinTrans 1.0 source code in the PowerBASIC language, contained in 
WinTrans.zip.  By default, the program directory is located at
C:\WinBT

The WinBT installer, wbtsetup.exe, may be downloaded at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.exe

A zip archive containing the same files is available at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/wbtsetup.zip

This documentation is also available online at
http://EmpowermentZone.com/WinBT.htm

The updated distribution can give a new life to WinTrans and NFBTrans.  
The installer makes the braille translator friendly to install, use, and 
learn.  The documentation gives developers information about recompiling 
the source code, thus opening a possible path to improvements 
contributed by the open source community.  The original WinTrans and 
NFBTrans archives are also included, so that anyone can start from there 
instead if preferred.

WinBT 2.0 has resulted from constructive collaboration among various 
parties for the common good of blind people.  Although imperfections 
undoubtedly remain, there is clear progress that is worth sharing.  We 
hope these contributions extend the value of NFBTrans and related 
technologies to users of electronic braille!

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