Chapter 8 Personalising BrailleR

8.1 General

Once you’ve played with a few examples, you might want to settle on the way you want BrailleR to work for you. There are a wide range of options needed to get the best out of the BrailleR package specific to each user, and perhaps for each user who wants specific settings to be in play for different projects. All BrailleR settings are stored in a local file, and also in a global file. These files are both called BrailleROptions. The global settings file is located in a folder called MyBrailleR which is located where you let BrailleR choose when you first loaded the package using the library(BrailleR) command. You could have let this be a temporary location so you will be asked every time you start BrailleR until you let the standard location be used.

The BrailleROptions file in the MyBrailleR folder will be used unless a local version is found. This local file will be in the working directory being used when the package is loaded.

8.2 Settings that are about you

8.2.1 Who is the R markdown file being written by?

You might want your analyses to use your name instead of the default name BrailleR. Do this using the SetAuthor() function. e.g.

SetAuthor("Jonathan Godfrey")

OK, you ought to use your name not mine, but you get the point.

This will have an instant impact, even on the examples for BrailleR functions. Set the author and then try example(UniDesc) for example.

8.2.2 The use of the VI() command

The BrailleR package was intended for use by blind people, but we need to see more in text than do most people in our intended audiences. You may wish to turn off or on the use of the output generated by the VI() commands throughout the R markdown files written by such commands as UniDesc() etc. Do this using the functions GoBlind() to use the VI() command, and GoSighted() to turn it off.

I think a standard workflow might be to start BrailleR, do some analyses using UniDesc() or OnePredictor() and the like, and then having worked out what was working well, use GoSighted() and re-issue the commands that you want to share with others. Don’t forget to GoBlind() again though so that you can get the text descriptions back when you need them.

8.3 BrailleR commands used in this chapter

We saw the use of the SetAuthor() function to personalise the work you are doing to use your name instead of a generic author. The GoBlind() and GoSighted() functions toggle between providing the additional output needed by blind users to interpret our work. Much of this additional output is not of interest to a sighted audience so changing back and forth should prove useful.