I should apologize for the lack of a good blogging schedule. Truthfully, I’ve been a bit busier than I would like to be and it makes it hard to find the time not just for blogging, but to get the amount of research done that I intended. I’ve had grandiose plans for writing python scripts for the mac as I mentioned in a previous post and some other cool things. This hasn’t happened yet, mostly because I haven’t found a whole lot of documentation on the subject. I found plenty of tutorials on learning apple script which at least for the time being doesn’t interest me that much. My original request for a how-to on writing scripts for the mac still remains. A document that has an emphasis on VoiceOver would be even better. Could I be so lucky?
Anyway, since I’ve essentially been learning two languages this semester I thought I’d describe some of the work that is involved in learning a programming language from a blindness prospective. We are obviously using python for this particular project, but I am also learning C++ in the CS course I am taking this semester. For me, learning language syntax is one of the easier tasks. I think I share the sentiments of many others that once you know 1 language it makes it easier to continue to another because thankfully, the structures are very similar in all languages. I suppose the tricky part is making sure I have the necessary resources to start exploring the given language. This usually consists of documentation of some kind. Unfortunately the selection of pre-recorded texts is limited, and brailled texts are even more rare to come by. If there is a required textbook say, for a class, the publisher in question will usually release an electronic version of the book as long as one has purchased a hard copy of the book. This process of releasing an electronic version can take a few weeks while your request is processed, so it’s a good rout to take if you know in advance what is needed. This is why it is helpful to obtain the names of textbooks as early as possible. Anyway I digress. In a lot of ways I think having electronic versions of the text is more convenient than say, an audio recording of the same text. This is because I’m usually at my computer when I’m looking at programming documentation and I use it as a reference. A pdf version makes it easy to look up syntax quickly and then I can simply switch back and forth between the textbook and my work environment. It is relatively easy to switch between windows on a computer logistically speaking, so it is not uncommon that I have 10 or 15 windows opened at a time, particularly when I’m writing a program. I suppose this can be compared to someone sighted who might keep a python reference guide on their desk opened to the relevant page while they type. By the way, I’m assuming sighted people actually do this; I wouldn’t know for sure, and I don’t want to sound too presumptuous.
The other part of this discussion that deserves attention is text editors. When I first started writing simple programs I really preferred editing with regular old notepad that comes with windows. While it is really a no thrills solution it was good enough. However now it is not uncommon for me to be dealing with lots of files at once. Thus, I’m learning to appreciate IDEs a bit more. I’ve been using visual studio in windows and have started exploring x-code on the mac. For python however, I still just use a text editor most of the time since my programs are still somewhat simple. While notepad works fine, I’ve used notepad++ a bit too and it also seems to work reasonably well from an accessibility prospective. One thing I noticed is that, because of the automatic syntax highlighting that notepad++ does by default, it can sometimes confuse screen reading software when trying to determine what text is selected. Many screen readers rely on the highlight color of the text to determine what text is selected for manipulating. This would include deleting, cutting, copying etc. I found that it’s best to turn off syntax highlighting if you are a screen reader user.
On a closing note let me just say to Please feel free to leave comments if there are any questions; it may give me an idea of topics I should cover in future entries.
