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Art of Electronics Rave - NON Politix! :-)

T

Trobador

Jan 1, 1970
0
Clarence_A said:
JeffM said:
Name a device invented since 1989 that you think deserves inclusion.
JeffM

How about any of the scores of cheap, powerful flash microcontrollers
with more [peripherals] [than] you can shake a stick at.
Al Borowski
Chapter 11; Figure 8.86 (and I didn't mean re-invented).

Great sense of humor. :)>)

I wonder how many of the parts listed can even be bought now?
its not about "parts", its about ideas.
so the "older" parts may not be available, but what good is a great new part
if you don't have the skill.
 
K

keith

Jan 1, 1970
0
On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 13:38:18 -0800, John Larkin

[snip]
Really, try it. It's fabulous for engineering math. I'd never consider
using a programmable calculator again.


John

That's what I'm after. Also I'd like to develop a "smart" automatic
text editor that opens a file and changes syntax from HSpice to PSpice
;-)

If there is an obvious difference in the files, there are a ton of editors
that are configurable for the source language. I sorta like MED, for
which I've done some fairly nice VHDL macros. For $30 (IIRC) it's a very
nice editor.
 
R

Richard H.

Jan 1, 1970
0
Nico said:
Whatever you do, don't use Delphi (Pascal).
You're walking into a dead end street with Delhpi.
[...]
Borland / Inprise turned Delphi in some sort of
a C clone anyway so why settle for less if you
can use the real thing: C

Interesting. I'm no Pascal buff, but used Delphi for some time before
they finally released the C++Builder platform derivative. What about it
is negative? Has it warped in newer versions (or have they stopped
updating it)? Or do you just dislike the VB-style objects?

Borland always seemed to be a huge supporter of Pascal, placing it ahead
of even C/C++ (as seen with Delphi's release well before C++Builder), so
it seems unlikely that they would abandon this product, or Pascal.

Richard
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Whatever you do, don't use Delphi (Pascal). You're walking into a dead
end street with Delhpi. Pascal and C are quite similar when it comes
to the structure of the language, but C is more complete and elegant
as a language. Borland / Inprise turned Delphi in some sort of a C
clone anyway so why settle for less if you can use the real thing: C

Actually, I think Pascal is a much better-designed language than C, except
for lack of conciseness ("begin...end" instead of "{...}").

The designer of Turbo Pascal, Anders Hejlsberg, also designed C# for
Microsoft. That's a language with the syntax of C and the mindset of
object-oriented Pascal.
 
R

Rich Grise

Jan 1, 1970
0
Hmm, those copyright laws are very strict. Over here everyone is
allowed to make copies of anything which was published for personal
use (FYI: this includes music and films). Every library has at least
one copying machine.

I've seen copying machines in at least one library, where the glass goes
literally to the edge, plus about an inch or two of glass down the side.
So you only have to open the book 90 degrees to copy all the way to the
spine.

So, I'd say they know that there's some copying going on! ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
Borland always seemed to be a huge supporter of Pascal, placing it ahead
of even C/C++ (as seen with Delphi's release well before C++Builder), so
it seems unlikely that they would abandon this product, or Pascal.

Indeed, Delphi is their flagship programming language product.
 
M

mc

Jan 1, 1970
0
I think what they mean is copied for lending out by the local library or
other redistribution.

At least under US law, and I think most of the world is the same, you can
copy anything for private study.
 
K

Kryten

Jan 1, 1970
0
I've seen copying machines in at least one library, where the glass goes
literally to the edge, plus about an inch or two of glass down the side.
So you only have to open the book 90 degrees to copy all the way to the
spine.


Does anyone make a scanner like that?

And preferably one that scans both sides of the book at once.

I find I get a big black bit where the spine is, and the words tend to bend
nearby.

Unless I press down pretty hard.


And dang these scanners are slow.


I'm sure there must be libraries around the world that have to archive old
books etc.
 
S

Spehro Pefhany

Jan 1, 1970
0
Does anyone make a scanner like that?

And preferably one that scans both sides of the book at once.

I find I get a big black bit where the spine is, and the words tend to bend
nearby.

Unless I press down pretty hard.

I like my skinny new Canon USB2.0 scanner (when not in use, sits on
the desk almost vertically on a little stand), but it's flimsy enough
that pushing down hard jams the carriage.
And dang these scanners are slow.

If you can hack the binding off and use one with a document feeder...
(but the library wouldn't like that).
I'm sure there must be libraries around the world that have to archive old
books etc.



Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
 
Ok, do any of the PowerBasic gurus know if there is anything in PB that
would let it be accessible to a screen reader? I would love to be able
to write simple apps that would work for my wife!
Not sure what your talking about, but to write apps real easy, try
VisualBasic 6.0
 
C

Charles Edmondson

Jan 1, 1970
0
John said:
I'm not sure what you mean. Details?

John
Ok, I'll see what I can do.

My wife uses JAWS to read the screen for her. It bascially is supposed
to see the information behind the display, and text to speech that
information to her. The challenges are navigating around the display,
and having the information there when she get there. I can't tell you
the joys of getting some software package (linke Omnipage 10) and
finding out the ONLY way to do major functions is to click on an image
with a mouse. No menus for those functions, no links that you can tab
to, you just have to 'feel' your way to it.

Or just as bad, it pops up a dialog box containing vital information,
and there is nothing there but an image, no text or title that can be
read by her system, so she is just hosed.

So, my real question concerning PB is does it have the links that would
let her read it. I don't really expect you to know, it was more a
rhetorical question. I am sure I would have to consult with the
developers to find out for sure.
 
M

Mark Jones

Jan 1, 1970
0
Charles said:
Ok, I'll see what I can do.

My wife uses JAWS to read the screen for her. It bascially is supposed
to see the information behind the display, and text to speech that
information to her. The challenges are navigating around the display,
and having the information there when she get there. I can't tell you
the joys of getting some software package (linke Omnipage 10) and
finding out the ONLY way to do major functions is to click on an image
with a mouse. No menus for those functions, no links that you can tab
to, you just have to 'feel' your way to it.

Or just as bad, it pops up a dialog box containing vital information,
and there is nothing there but an image, no text or title that can be
read by her system, so she is just hosed.

So, my real question concerning PB is does it have the links that would
let her read it. I don't really expect you to know, it was more a
rhetorical question. I am sure I would have to consult with the
developers to find out for sure.


Hmm, speaking from limited windows API experience, it should be
possible to make a program that "speaks" whatever the mouse is pointed
at. Every part of a window, from its menus to buttons to images, have
a Win32 GUI handle. A program like Greatis WinDowse
(http://www.greatis.com/delphicb/windowse/) can show many details
about any window. Using a similar idea to "label" buttons (possibly
from a database?) of other programs seems very do-able.
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
I always write the low level stuff in C. If I need something GUI, I
use VB which I'm not totally happy with. I think I'll try to download
the PB for windows and see what it does.

I just installed it and took a look around, but I didn't really like
what I was looking at. I think VB is easier to use for the Windows GUI
stuff and C is more flexible for the technical stuff. So it is two
times 'no' for PB when it comes to writing apps under Windows.
 
G

Guy Macon

Jan 1, 1970
0
Charles said:
My wife uses JAWS to read the screen for her. It bascially is supposed
to see the information behind the display, and text to speech that
information to her. The challenges are navigating around the display,
and having the information there when she get there. I can't tell you
the joys of getting some software package (linke Omnipage 10) and
finding out the ONLY way to do major functions is to click on an image
with a mouse. No menus for those functions, no links that you can tab
to, you just have to 'feel' your way to it.

Or just as bad, it pops up a dialog box containing vital information,
and there is nothing there but an image, no text or title that can be
read by her system, so she is just hosed.

So, my real question concerning PB is does it have the links that would
let her read it. I don't really expect you to know, it was more a
rhetorical question. I am sure I would have to consult with the
developers to find out for sure.

I have worked with JAWS, and PowerBASIC Console Compiler is perfect
for this. Everything about it is text-based and can be navigated
with a leyboard - no mouse needed.

As an aside, I encourage anyone who writes webpages or software
to set up a computer as if a blind person was using it and then
to test all functions with your monitor turned off. You will
find the experience to be (*cough*) eye opening.
 
C

Charles Edmondson

Jan 1, 1970
0
Guy said:
Charles Edmondson wrote:




I have worked with JAWS, and PowerBASIC Console Compiler is perfect
for this. Everything about it is text-based and can be navigated
with a leyboard - no mouse needed.

As an aside, I encourage anyone who writes webpages or software
to set up a computer as if a blind person was using it and then
to test all functions with your monitor turned off. You will
find the experience to be (*cough*) eye opening.
Thanks Guy,
That is exactly what I was needing to know! For her, everything since
Wordperfect7 have been a step backward... :cool:
 
T

Tom MacIntyre

Jan 1, 1970
0
Ken Smith said:
[...]
If you were designing a relatively big object-oriented program, or if you
wanted an elegantly designed language in the C++/Java tradition,

I would not call C++ or Java "elegantly designed"

Nor would I! C# is C++ redone... C++ gone sane...
C# is just slightly #er than Db, isn't it? :)

Tom
 
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