[NFBCS] visual studio code

[Paul York]

As a (nearly blind) professor using GitHub Codespaces in my (virtual)
classroom, I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience with
this.

To assuage Bryan's concern, Codespaces is not a virtual machine in the
"full desktop" sense. It's really all Docker, SSH, peanut butter and magic
behind the scenes.

There are two ways to use Codespaces.

One way is entirely in the browser. This runs VSCode inside of a browser
window. This I would imagine is far less optimal because the browser might
intercept the commands intended for VS Code. I've not used it with screen
readers, but I imagine it likely wouldn't work perfectly. Certainly the
keyboard shortcuts are sometimes intercepted in very inconvenient ways
(like Ctrl+W will close the entire session instead of just closing an
editor tab).

The other way is to use the Codespaces extension from within VS Code
itself. Here you just connect to the Codespace using the same URL. See:
https://docs.github.com/en/codespaces/developing-in-codespaces/using-github-codespaces-in-visual-studio-code

If you are currently using the browser method, I'd strongly recommend
trying the "native" method to see if your experience is better. Certainly
for me it is a significantly superior UX.

Best,
Paul York

On Sat, Mar 25, 2023 at 12:58 PM Bryan via NFBCS <nfbcs at nfbnet.org> wrote:

> Hey thee Pete,
>
> I have used VS Code for years on a Mac with no problem at all. I have also
> used VS Code on Windows using Jaws with no problems at all. VS Code is
> accessible and offers lots of ways of executing commands from shortcut key
> strokes to a search function that is amazing. I have honestly never heard
> of
> a github virtual machine but here is what I will say. While virtual
> machines
> are not typically the best for running a full desktop, running secure
> shells
> with a terminal is usually pretty solid. When using a screen reader it is
> difficult to use a virtual machine because we do not use a mouse to
> interact
> with the interface. When using a screen reader we use keyboard commands
> which presents the issue of which system are you issuing commands to? It
> could be screen reader specific commands, host machine commands, and
> virtual
> system commands. I know some virtual machines have tried to fix this with
> Unity view patching all commands into the virtual machine but it is not
> perfect.
>
> I wish I had better news for you but my suspicion is that you are trying to
> issue commands to the virtual machine and the host machine is not allowing
> them to pass through. Typing text into the virtual machine will probably
> work but when executing other commands the host computer is not knowing how
> to handle where the commands should be going. Perhaps you can ask your
> professor which tools they have loaded on the github instance so you can
> duplicate them on your personal machine. From there you can write your code
> on your personal machine and load it to github as you are doing with full
> access to the tools you need.
>
> Bryan Duarte Ph.d.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Peter Mark via NFBCS
> Sent: Friday, March 24, 2023 8:32 AM
> To: nfbcs at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Peter Mark <usapetermark at gmail.com>
> Subject: [NFBCS] visual studio code
>
> hi cs list
>
> a week ago or so, i wrote asking about help using visual studio code on a
> github virtual machine.
> it is not working well with voiceover.
>
> there were no responses, maybe no one here is using such a system, so may i
> ask a more general question?
>
> do most coders use nvda with visual studio?
>
> i mean, vs code that i installed on my mac is pretty ok, but on the virtual
> machine it is not very good.
> the editor does not read correctly no matter what i try.
>
> is it the opinion of the group that this may work better if i had a windows
> computer?
> i mean, vs code and the github codespace seems to be microsoft products.
>
> i do like apple for the terminal is in my opinion better than the windows
> command line, but i will switch if the editing is better.
>
> i have been working in textedit and compiling in the terminal on my mac
> then
> pasting the finished code into the github codespace for submission, but
> this
> is becoming more of an issue because the corse i am in is using things that
> i don't have on my local machine.
>
> please, any advice or if anyone can direct me to others who may be advanced
> coders using such github codespaces.
>
> thanks, pete
>
>
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