Re: Notes on how to read tables with Emacspeak 8.0 and W3 4.0 beta

["T. V. Raman" <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Jason--

There are two halves to the issue of tables.

1) Getting a sane data structure built from parsing the
   information source, --whatever that source may be --HTML,
   XML, a database query result set ...

2) Presenting, Navigating and Browsing that data structure
   in ways that you as a user would like 

What you've seen so far (this is just a guess)
is how the Emacspeak/W3 combination does with tables -- this
is a function of the data structures built --and that at
present is at best a moving target.

For a real feel for the power of Emacspeak in navigating
tabular data, you should look at:

A) Emacspeak's table browsing mode --I built this to test
out and experiment ideas for browsing tabular data 
--the browsing is documented in the online help (not the
info manual)
and the more theoretical aspects are described in my book.

When running emacspeak, try  \C-e \C-t
--emacspeak-table-find-file
and specify any of the tables found in the emacspeak/tables
directory with extension .tab.
These are CalTrain schedules -- many rows and a lot of
columns.

B) Try using Emacspeak with the emacs spread sheet
application (dismal)
--there are spread sheet samples in emacspeak/dismal. again
--this demonstrates an instance of where each spread sheet
itself is capable of storing the "speaking logic" in
addition to the spread sheet data --so just as a regular
spread sheet stores how wide a column is when displayed,
emacspeak extends dismal to save out how the user would
like rows in a specific sheet to be spoken.

Enjoy--

-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      Adobe Systems                 Tel: 1 (408) 536 3945   (W14-612)
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    Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are my own and in no way should be taken
as representative of my employer, Adobe Systems Inc.
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