[nfbcs] New Drawing Tool

[Steve Jacobson]

Jim,

I have spent a little time today reading through the instructions and also playing with the program 
some.  This is an interesting tool, and while I see some difficulties with its use by children just 
starting out learning math graphing concepts, it has potential.  I may also be under-estimating kids, 
who knows.  I want to print what I have tried to see if it looks like what I intended to create before 
saying too much, but if my results do not correspond to my intent, it could certainly be the operator.  
<smile>

The program is a command driven drawing program where you select a shape and the coordinates where that 
shape is to be placed.  You can also select the width and the blackness of the lines used so you can 
create bolder and less bold shapes.  Finally, there is a provision to simply draw a line and one can 
create a curve as well as a straight line specifying multiple sets of coordinates.  This is not a 
graphing calculator where you write a function and generate a line, rather it is driven by the 
coordinates you enter along with other options.  To get really complex, you need to create a "path" file 
that uses SVG commands directly, although much of what one does one can be accomplished by filling 
parameters on the SVG Drawing screens themselves.  

This apparently has something to do with the standard, but the coordinate system has point (0, 0) at the 
top left.  While positive values of the X-coordinate go to the right, positive values of "Y" go down.  
This means that the coordinates that one uses to create a drawing are not consistent with the common 
cartesian coordinates, even if you limit the range to one quadrant.  Problems with this have been 
acknowledged by the author, and he says he may try to deal with that in time.  This is one of the things 
that I feel would make this somewhat difficult for kids to use while in the early stages of learning 
graphing.  He points out that you can use the same coordinate values, and the drawing will simply be 
upside down.  You could turn the printout over but of course any text would then be upside down.  The 
author suggests that this shortcoming is one that most math instructors will be able to deal with, and 
he may be right.  One also needs to remember that this program is not necessarily limited to creating 
graphs.  With a little thought, one could create a floor plan or other type of drawing where the 
coordinates used need not relate to cartesian coordinates but are simply measurements from the top left 
of the page.  In these cases, specifying coordinates in that way is very logical.  

Another aspect of this that I find interesting is that I have not knowingly used a Java program which 
uses the SWT library before and it worked very well.  In case John Boyer is reading this, <smile> I will 
be getting more exposure with his Braille Blaster program very soon, but I find this encouraging.

Finally, this endeavor has caused me to wonder whether specific purpose programs could be written to 
create certain kinds of drawings more efficiently.  Given enough time, I think I could create a 
presentable flowchart, for example, but I think creating a flowchart in this way would be inefficient.  
However, another version of this program could probably be written tailored specific to flowcharting 
with some of the layout handled automatically, or a flow chart might be generated from pseudo-code, as 
has been done in the past.  I have not ventured into this area very much so there might be better ways 
of approaching such problems, but this concept is fascinating.  

I hope this is the kind of answer you find useful.  Please remember that this is based on a short period 
of use.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 20:25:24 -0700, Jim Barbour wrote:

>Steve, I was asked about this app today.  Could you say more about how
>much you were able to do with the drawing tool?

>Thanks,

>Jim

>On Thu, Sep 22, 2011 at 08:12:31PM -0500, Steve Jacobson wrote:
>> Hi,
>> 
>> Just to clarify, the drawing program was written using the SWT library of Java, so the Windows Access 
Bridge is not 
>> required for this program to run.  It will run with a Windows screen reader, and I have run it with 
Window-Eyes and it 
>> seems to work.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> 
>> Steve Jacobson
>> 
>> On Thu, 22 Sep 2011 17:37:19 -0700, Marvin Hunkin wrote:
>> 
>> >hi.
>> >if you visit http://www.dickbaldwin.com, got this program link from the 
>> >top tid bits from http://top.enterprises.com
>> >and it is a accessible java based drawing tool for the blind.
>> >he is a university student.
>> >and so it is fully accessible.
>> >it comes in a zip file.
>> >and you need the latest or a recent java jre or sdk, and java access bridge.
>> >cool, i have always wanted to create data flow diagrams, flow charts, 
>> >for my help desk course, and computer programming.
>> >and also to design a story board for my blindness related site, for my 
>> >website development course.
>> >well i was able to start a new drawing, and able to create a line control.
>> >real cool.
>> >check it out.
>> >Marvin.
>> 
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>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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