Drivers/Braille/LogText/DEVELOP

File: PROTOCOL
by Hans Schou <blind@schou.dk>

General description of LogText
------------------------------
http://www.dinf.org/tiresias/Equipment/Notetakers.htm
Personal aid for braille users. Piezo-electric, 8 dot matrix, 32 character
braille display with a braille keyboard. Also provided with a 32 character
LCD text display. Available in two versions: two-hand version has a tilted
keyboard for easy positioning of hands; one-hand keyboard is designed for
operation by either the right or the left hand. Functions include reading,
editing and storage of text and a clock. Text storage approximates 200
typewritten pages. Data storage: 512KB RAM (with lithium battery backup) of
which 328KB is for text storage, 56KB for working storage, 56KB for
terminal buffer, 56KB for input/output buffer and 16KB for system. One
standard parallel port and 2 RS232-E compatible ports. Power supply by
mains adaptor 220/12V AC +/- 10%, 20VA or by built-in NiCad rechargeable
batteries. Length: 380mm Width: 180mm Height: 65mm Weight: 2.7kg

Techinal description
--------------------
The LogText is almost like a VT-100 terminal regarding functionality.
It has an internal screen buffer of 80x25 characters and it is then
only neccesary to update the internal screen when there is changes.
The user can move around on the internal screen without communicating
with the computer. The LogText do request updates of the specefic
line but it is not neccesary to update a line if it has not changed.
When the LogText is in cursor tracking mode and the user presses one
of the arrow keys, the LogText will first request an update of the
specefic line and then a request for update of the line on the computer
screen which hold the cursor. A sequence could look like 0xff 0x03 0xff
0x00 when in cursor tracking mode.

Dot key strokes are send as plain ASCII. Pressing dot-1 will just send
ASCII 'a' 0x61 and dot-17 will send ASCII 'A' 0x41. Cursor movement
keys is escaped with 0x00 and the following character is similar to
VT-100 cursor movement codes. An arrow up will send the sequence
0x00 0x48. As 0x00 is used for escaping cursor movements and 0xff is
used for requesting updates, these two codes can not be send from the
LogText. This gives that the LogText can send 254 different charcaters.
The translation table used is codepage XXX and can then produce six
danish letters. The rest of the table is used for abbreviations.

Data from the computer to LogText is send as a protocol without ACK.
A full description of the computer to LogText protocol can be found
in the protocol section.

If the user does not press any keys there will be no communication
from the LogText to the computer. The driver should detect any changes
on the computer screen and send an update if the line the user is
looking has changed. The computer will know what the currentline is
by saving the last absolute line which was requested from the LogText.
That is, if the user requested line 4 and is in cursor tracking mode
the sequence would be 0xff 0x04 0xff 0x00. In the case the computer
will know that the user is looking at line 4 and that the LogText
should have an update if line 4 changes. It is not neccesary to update
lines from the computer screen if the user is not looking at them.
If the cursor moves an update should be send.

If a wrong protocol package is send to Logtext it will go into an error
mode and stop receiving.

Communication
-------------
The RS-232 communication is fixed to 9600 baud n 8 1.

Logtext protocol
----------------

1. Request from Logtext

1.1. Update a line: <start><line>
 start: start code 0xFF
 
 line: line number to update
   0x01 <= line 0x19

 Example:
  Update of line 4: 0xff 0x04

1.2. Update cursor line: <start><0>
 start: start code 0xFF

 0: code 0x00

 The sequence is send at start up of the LogText and
 when in cursor tracking mode.

 Example:
  Update current line: 0xff 0x00

2. Answer from computer

2.1. Protocol: <start><line><cursor><column><count><text>
 start: start code 0xFF.

 line: line number on screen.
   0x01 <= line 0x19

 cursor: cursor position on this line.
   0x01 <= cursor <= 0x50
 Special cursor == 0x00, no cursor on this line.

 column: text starts from this column.
   0x01 <= column <= 0x50

 count: number of bytes in text.
   0x00 <= count <= 0x50

 text: ASCII characters. Any character except 0xFF.
  It is not possible to turn on all dots (0xFF).

 Example:
   0xff 0x01 0x04 0x01 0x03 0x61 0x62 0x63
   will display 'abc' at top left with the cursor at the end.

2.2. Automatic cursor tracking.
If the mode is currently in cursor tracking and the cursor moves
to another line, the computer should send a new updated line to
LogText. If the cursor moves within the same line the computer sends
an update of the cursor position.


Logtext manufactor
------------------
 Tactilog
 Roskildevej 15
 DK-7441 Bording
 Denmark

 Contact: Poul Erik Skov
 Phone: +45 86 86 20 88
 Fax: +45 86 86 21 88