[NFBCS] Using Visual Studio with a Braille Display

[Paul York]

I'm surprised that others are advising you to use different editors.
Microsoft puts a lot of effort into making their editors as accessible as
possible. VSCode might be a little behind the "big brother" in this regard,
but still should be pretty good. VSCode is very popular right now and
incredibly versatile, so I'm not surprised your school uses it. I use it in
my courses, as well.

I'm pleasantly surprised that you are getting any support for NVDA in a
virtual Ubuntu environment running on Windows. My past experience with
running screen readers on virtualized graphical user interfaces has not
been great. But if that part is working for you, then there's no reason
that VSCode shouldn't be a very accessible option.

Some differences from what I gave above:

  - Ctrl + P then Enter will move you to the text editor regardless of
focus.
  - Ctrl + P then type will filter a list of files in the current project.
Arrow up or down then Enter to select a file. Super useful.
  - Ctrl + / (forward slash) will toggle comment / uncomment a line or
selection. Alternatively you can also use Ctrl + K then C to comment a line
and Ctrl + K then U to uncomment a line or selection if the toggle feature
is less accessible (these two also work in the full Visual Studio).

I think all the rest is the same as I provided for the full Visual Studio.

Another useful one:
  - Ctrl + F finds text in the current file...this is obviously common
but...
  - Ctrl + Shift + F then type will search for text across all files in the
current project. You'll then need to mouse over the results (left side of
the window) to select one, or you can hit tab six times and arrow up or
down. Clicking or pressing Enter will open the editor and place the cursor
at the beginning of the "found" text.

Note that VSCode also has a "command palette" which basically consolidates
all of the complex menu choices. Hit Ctrl + Shift + P to access this. Type
in a partial command to filter the list then Up / Down Arrow then Enter to
select. Some of these commands will follow up with prompts for additional
information. In Windows these are pretty accessible. Not sure about VSCode
running on Linux in Windows. As usual, the ESC key will get you out of most
of these dialogs.

Best,
Paul

On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 1:15 PM <dan.tevelde at comcast.net> wrote:

> Hi Paul,
>
>
>
> This is extremely useful information. The school uses Vscode
> unfortunately. It runs inside the Ubantu Linux distribution. When I start
> Windows the computer starts NVDA and then the Linux distribution. You are
> the first person who has not told me to use a different editor. As much as
> possible I try using the same technology sighted people do.
>
>
>
> Dan
>
> *From:* Paul York <paul at yorkfamily.com>
> *Sent:* Monday, January 3, 2022 11:12 AM
> *To:* NFB in Computer Science Mailing List <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> *Cc:* dan.tevelde at comcast.net
> *Subject:* Re: [NFBCS] Using Visual Studio with a Braille Display
>
>
>
> At least by default, the Home key has a "toggle" function. The first tap
> moves to just before the first character of a line (i.e., indented). The
> second moves to the first column of the line (i.e., unindented). The End
> key always moves to after the last character on the line. So an easy
> strategy to always get the cursor to just before the first character of a
> line regardless of your current position is just to tap End followed by
> Home.  Note that this also works on empty lines if you want to make sure
> your cursor is at the same level of indentation as the line above. And a
> strategy for getting to the first column reliably is just End then Home
> then Home.
>
>
>
> Other nice shortcuts that not everyone knows:
>
>
>
>  - Ctrl + Right Arrow or Ctrl + Left Arrow to skip to the start of the
> next or prior word. But this is smarter than normal as it treats delimiters
> like quotation marks and parentheses as words (very helpful for coding).
>
>  - F7 should always return you to the code window if you find your focus
> elsewhere.
>
>  - F2 will rename a variable or function name everywhere it is used.
>
>  - Ctrl + X with no selection will cut an entire line of text to the
> clipboard (or delete it if you don't wish to paste it).
>
>  - Shift+Down Arrow or Shift + Up Arrow selects a line. End then Home then
> Home then Shift + Down Arrow will reliably select entire line(s).
>
>  - Alt + Down Arrow or Alt + Up Arrow will move an entire line of code up
> or down. Will also move an entire selection up or down so combine with the
> above for useful code reorganization.
>
>  - Ctrl + E then C will comment out an entire line (or selection) of code.
>
>  - Ctrl + E then U will uncomment an entire line (or selection) of code.
>
>
>
> Step through the "View" menu to find shortcuts to useful "panels",
> especially the Solution Explorer and Error List.
>
>
>
> Note that this is for Visual Studio, NOT the confusingly similar Visual
> Studio Code. VSCode is slightly different, though most of the above will
> still apply.
>
>
>
> Hope you find it helpful. Good luck with your class!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 3, 2022 at 11:24 AM dan TeVelde via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
> wrote:
>
> Hello All,
>
>
>
> I am attending a technical program for web design. Right now I am using
> Visual Studio to write JavaScript. For the most part I find the editor
> accessible and it has some really useful features. I use a Mantis Braille
> display which works well most of the time. I am having some issues with
> cursor routing when I try moving the cursor to the beginning of the line. I
> could press the home key but then I would be past the text I want to edit.
> If I route the cursor sometimes focus leaves the editor window. I hope
> someone can help.
>
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dan
>
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