[Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program

[Amanda Lacy]

Is there a specific folder in which we should place this file? I get an 
unsatisfied link error that says something like cannot load SWTWin.dll.

Amanda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Baldwin" <baldwin at dickbaldwin.com>
To: "BlindMath Mailing List" <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:02 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] First attempt at an SWT/SVG based drawing program


> For those who may be interested, I have posted my first attempt at putting
> an SWT GUI front end on my SVG graphics library and have posted the
> resulting program in a file named SVGDraw01.jar at the following URL:
>
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/SWT-SVG/SVGDraw01.jar
>
> I would appreciate it if some of you would download the program, try it, 
> and
> provide feedback in several different areas. You will need the Java 
> virtual
> machine installed on your computer to run the program. On Windows, you can
> run the program either by double-clicking on the jar file, or by opening a
> command prompt in the folder containing the jar file and entering the
> following command at the command prompt:
>
> java -jar SVGDraw01.jar
>
> When the program starts running, you should find yourself in an SWT Combo
> object with an item labeled "User Instructions" highlighted. Pressing the
> Enter key at this point will take you to the beginning of a page 
> containing
> user instructions. A screen reader should tell you to press shift-tab to
> return to the combo box or to press the tab key to continue.
>
> Pressing the tab key will cause the screen reader to begin reading the
> instructions. At the end of the instructions, the screen reader should 
> tell
> you to "Press tab to return to the combo box." (Of course, you can press 
> tab
> at any time. You don't need to wait until the screen reader finishes 
> reading
> the instructions.)
>
> You can navigate up and down the list in the combo box using the arrow 
> keys
> and act on an item by pressing the Enter key when that item is selected. 
> The
> combo box currently contains the following items:
>
> User instructions (which is what you should do first)
> Start a new drawing (which is what you should do next)
> Draw a line
> Draw a rectangle
> Draw a circle
> Draw an ellipse
> Draw a polyline
> Draw a polygon
> Write drawing file (which is what you should do next to last)
> Stop program (which is what you should do last)
>
> When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Start a new drawing," an
> empty SVG page of a specified size with optional title and description
> attributes will be created in memory.
>
> When you press the Enter key on the item labeled "Write drawing file", 
> that
> SVG page will be written to an output SVG file with a name of your 
> choosing
> and an extension of .svg.
>
> Between starting a new drawing and writing the drawing file, you can add
> elements for any number of any of the six shapes (which are the SVG basic
> shapes) in any order to the SVG page.
>
> When you press the Enter key on a shape item, you will land on a form that
> allows you to enter the most commonly used attributes for that shape. Fill
> in the blanks, check the check boxes (if any), and finally push the button
> labeled "Push to draw ---" to add the shape element to the SVG page. You 
> can
> navigate up and down the the form with the tab key and shift-tab.
>
> I would appreciate receiving feedback in at least the following areas.
> Feedback in other areas not listed below will be appreciated also.
>
> 1. Will the program be accessible to a blind student? What could be done 
> to
> improve accessibility?
>
> 2. Will the navigation structure of the program be functionally useful to 
> a
> blind student? What could be done to improve the navigational 
> functionality
> and make the program easier to use?
>
> 3. Will the "fill-in-the-blanks" concept for creating technical diagrams 
> and
> drawings, such as vector diagrams and free-body diagrams, be useful to a
> blind student? If so, which of the many additional capabilities of SVG, 
> such
> as arcs, paths, etc., would be appropriate as an upgrade to the program.
> (I'm already planning on adding the ability to create text elements. I 
> just
> haven't resolved all the questions regarding fonts yet.)
>
> 4. To what extent is the output SVG file compatible with graphics 
> embossers
> that can work with SVG files as input? What could be done to improve that
> compatibility?
>
> Thank you,
>
> Dick Baldwin
>
> -- 
> Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
> Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
> http://www.DickBaldwin.com
>
> Professor of Computer Information Technology
> Austin Community College
> (512) 223-4758
> mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
> http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/
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