[nfbcs] Programming with a Braille display

Sat Nov 12 21:05:22 UTC 2011

I find that creating a frame for the specific portion of the status line and
assigning it to a key works just fine for insuring indentation.  I have my
speech rate up pretty high.  So I would have to improve my Braille skills
tremendously to get as efficient as I am with the speech.   

Thanks, William

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Doug Lee
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 3:55 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Subject: Re: [nfbcs] Programming with a Braille display

I have done programming via just speech for most of 20 years, but I
find Braille displays very helpful for a few tasks. Mostly, they speed
up the process of tracing indent levels, as has already been
mentioned.

To be fair, I should say that perhaps the reason I use speech almost
to the exclusion of Braille is that, when I started out in
programming, it was my only realistic choice. I used to braille
program listings onto paper with Braille printers, but that's so much
slower than a modern Braille display even now. I seem to recall
spending a good afternoon Brailling out the entire TexTalker.blind
speech program in Assembly language on an Apple once, to the tune of
about 60 pages I think, using a Cranmer modified Perkins Brailler,
which probably put out less than seven lines a minute and required
manual loading of each page... but we're way past all that now.

On Tue, Nov 08, 2011 at 12:35:38PM -0800, Tami Kinney wrote:
Aaron,

I've been dragging my feet getting back into programming because I
haven't managed to get a braille display, and trying to get started
again using speech only makes me crazy. Also, Hearing code read to me
sounds like incomprehensible gibberish. I'm starting to just suck it
up and set aside time regularly to practice listening to code and path
names for linux config files or terminal commands, but... It's coming
slowly for me.

My own queries around and about indicate that most professional
programmers find the 80-cell display to be their best option. My
former employer was prepared to purchase one for me when I was losing
the ability to read print, only we needed the VR agency to get someone
out for an onsite evaluation and more information about the technical
details, so... I hope they found someone good to do that job when I
had to give it up because I couldn't read and the agency still
couldn't get anyone out there. Sigh. The price of an 80-cell then, as
now, is around $10k.

A 40-cell is around $5k, although I guess the Focus is only $4k these
days... There are rumors that prices will start to come down soon, so
I'm waiting for that with bated breath.

You're the third person I've ever heard of who does programming with
speech only. /smile/ So I'm sure there must be others. You've bummed
me out because if other people can program with speech only, then I
don't have any excuse to put off learning to do that myself, do i?
/grin/

I would say you're dead on about efficiency. I can only guess for
myself, but there do seem to be a lot of little tasks or bits of tasks
that involve squirrelling around with the screen reader that people
who use braille just read with their fingers... My assumptions on my
expectations for improved efficiency are also based on the simple fact
that even as a pretty new braille reader, I recall waht I read through
my fingers much more accurately and clearly than I do what I hear read
to me... I'm getting better due to experience but ... That's not
saying much. /smile/ Proofing is also more time consuming and also
fatiguing for me. That could be mostly just me and how I respond
conceptually to the spoken word as opposed to the read word... My
fingers do a much better job for me at replacing my eyeballs than do
my ears.

I don't know if that is helpful, but I thought I would throw it out
since I'm in a similar place.

I'm looking forward to hearing what everyone else has to say. /smile/

Tami

On 11/08/2011 06:46 AM, Aaron Cannon wrote:
>Hi all.
>
>I'm wondering how many programmers use a braille display?  I have been
>programming for the past several years, but I've never tried to use a
>braille display.  Do you feel that it makes you more efficient?  If
>so, how exactly?
>
>I assume the larger the display, the better?
>
>Any advice would be appreciated.  Anything I can do to make myself
>more efficient is great.
>
>Thanks.
>
>Aaron
>
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-- 
Doug Lee                 dgl at dlee.org                http://www.dlee.org
SSB BART Group           doug.lee at ssbbartgroup.com
http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
"If you refuse to be made straight when you are green,
you will not be made straight when you are dry." {African}

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