SAM Driver for Tieman CombiBraille

This is a fully functional SAM driver for use with a Tieman CombiBraille. This includes the 25, 45 and 85 cell models.

This driver uses the WIN32 Comms API to talk to the Braille display so will work in Windows 95 and NT, there is no 16-bit code involved.

The CombiBraille must be set to serial communications in order to use this driver. To switch from another mode to serial communications, switch the unit on whilst pressing the T1 key.

Please report any bugs to Dolphin. If it crashes please tell us the crash address and registers etc, from the crash message box, also report the driver version number (check with explorer - file properties).

Note: If you are using a 16550 compatible serial port, for proper   operation turn off the "Use FIFO buffers" checkbox.  This can be done   through Device Manager in the Windows Control Panel: select the COM port   used and go into its properties, then select advanced and de-select the   "Use FIFO buffers" checkbox. After making this change you may then have to re-boot.

Features
Automatic detection of Braille displays.
Supports units with or without speech synthesisers.
Supports all the Apollo's voice commands.
Driver information panel will give you engine version and ROM info.
Indexing for the speech can be to the nearest character.
Supports 16 sound FX and several pauses.
Prompts are translatable. UK and US prompts are built in- others can be read from a prompt file.
Speaks numbers as words providing external prompt file exists.

Restrictions
No Exceptions dictionary.
No phoneme support.

Key assignments
The following lists the default keys to press for each Braille operation.
Your screen reader may not support some of these operations.
The key assignments are the same for 25, 45 and 85 models.
In the following list, t1...t5 refer to the five thumb keys on the front of the Combibraille, b1 ... b6 refer to the six buttons on the top of the unit.

Move to top left of window: b1+b2+b3
Move to bottom left of window: b4+b5+b6
Move to focus: t3
Left edge of window: b3
Right edge of window: b6
MOve one line up: t2
MOve one line down: t4
Move left one character: b1+b3
MOve right one character: b4+b6
Move left one Braille display width: b1
MOve right one Braille display width: b4
Move left one half Braille display width: b1+b2
MOve right one half Braille display width: b4+b5
Read backwards: t1
Read forwards: t5
Toggle focus tracking: b1+b2+b3+b5
Switch to Attribute mode 1: b1+b2+b3+b5+b6
Switch to Attribute mode 2: b1+b3+b4+b6
Switch to report mode: b3+b4
Toggle Eight dot Braille: b1+b2+b5+b6
Toggle through cursor styles: b1+b3+b4+b5+b6
Toggle cursor visible: b5
Toggle audio feedback: b1+b3+b5
Toggle skip blank lines: b1+b2+b4+b6
Toggle physical layout mode: b1+b3+b4+b5
Toggle trembling caps: b2+b4+b5+b6
Toggle showing non-plain characters in dot 8: b1+b2+b3+b4+b6
Make cursor route single click: b1+b2+b6
Make cursor route double click: b1+b2+b4+b5+b6
Make cursor route right click: b3+b4+b5
Activate configuration dialog: b1+b2+b3+b4+b5+b6

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