[NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
Steve Jacobson
steve.jacobson at outlook.com
Wed Dec 11 16:33:06 UTC 2019
Tracy,
If you have not already done so, try the shortcuts to access the menus to see if they work. Sometimes they work when the ALT key doesn't bring them up, or the opposite can also be true. Of course, it is possible that the full-screen mode locks out all menus completely, I am guessing here based upon other full-screen views I've experienced.
Best regards,
Steve Jacobson
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NFBCS
Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2019 8:37 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
Thanks Steve for your very comprehensive analysis. Some of this I knew, and
some I didn't.
I had a little time this morning to mess around with Hummingbird, and
changing the view to full screen seems to have resolved some of my problems.
It's now showing the whole line, and, so far, the braille display isn't
jumping around. Hooray!
Oddly though, once I changed to full screen, I can no longer access any of
the view or font menus. But maybe I don't need to, now.
My Jaws script still crashes when I log in or out, but at least, after I
restart Jaws, I can use the application. Still don't have Windows 10 to try
it with, though. But I've saved your email for future reference.
Tracy
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
via NFBCS
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 10:39 AM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Cc: Steve Jacobson
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
Tracy and Kathy,
I don't know if any of my experiences will apply to your situations but
maybe you will find something here to try.
Tracy, I used Reflections for years and was really disappointed when my
employer moved away from the version we were using. We had two options we
could use to replace Reflections and under Windows 7, IBM Personal
Communications worked fine for me so I went with that. When we upgraded to
Windows 10, though, I began having problems even with that emulator. The
biggest problem I had was that at first, the default font used worked fine
after I originally installed it or even after doing a repair. It was a
specific IBM-3270 font. When I restarted Windows, nothing would display
within the IBM Personal Communications window. JAWS didn't see any
characters but they were not visible either. They were not visible whether
JAWS was running or not. Even though IBM Personal Communications was one of
my employers options, I was the only person using it so this was not a known
problem. I found, though, that I could assign another font to the Window
and the problem seemed to go away. With I
BM Personal Communications, there was an option for automatic resizing of
the font as one resized the window and this made a difference as to which
fonts could be substituted. Mostly, though, I received the best results
with the window maximized. At some point, though, a Windows 10 update fixed
the problem with the disappearing IBM-3270 font so I could switch back to
that font. Things worked best when using that font rather than a
substituted font, but there must have been some kind of issue with Windows
10 and certain fonts that was eventually corrected. Unfortunately,
companies vary greatly in terms of when they apply updates so it is possible
that either of you may still be on an earlier version of Windows 10 than I
am. Also, Tracy, I understand you are not using IBM Personal
Communications, but there could still be a similar issue. Substituting a
different font might be worth trying. Also, when the font did not display,
the status line did not display, either. When I cha
nged the font, the status line was still not visible. This could be a
problem if scripts are trying to do anything based upon the cursor position
shown on the status line.
Also, be sure to have somebody look at your screen when it is working right
and when it is not working right. It is possible that something is
happening visually that might give you an idea of what is causing the
problem. Such things as the cursor changing shape or disappearing when the
terminal is busy could cause problems.
An old issue with 3270 emulators, as you probably have already explored, is
the cursor. There are usually options for cursor shape. There tends to be
three shapes offered, a vertical line, an underline, and a block cursor. My
experience has been that the block cursor rarely works as well as either of
the other two cursor types. Also, JAWS might have trouble detecting certain
cursors if the window in which it is displayed is too small. Cursor Shape
has always been a variable with 3270 emulators even before Windows 10, but
it is easy to forget to check on it when one installs an entirely new
version of the software under Windows 10.
Cursor Blink rate can also be an issue. Again, IBM Personal Communication
has a check box that determines if the cursor blinks or does not blink.
Make sure it blinks. If it does not blink, one affect is that either JAWS
won't find it, or it finds it for a moment after the cursor is moved but
looses track of it. The best result is to set it to blink as fast if there
is such an option. However, in the old Reflection product, there were
options for Slow, Medium, Fast or System blink rate. In that case, I had
the best results having it use the system's blink rate. I don't have such
an option with the current version of IBM Personal Communications, but
possibly there is such an option yet in Hummingbird.
Cross Hair settings tend to also be available in 3270 emulators. This is an
option where a vertical and horizontal line move with the cursor and cross
at the cursor. This allows the cursor to be more quickly located visually.
However, this option can confuse the identification of the cursor. I
usually turn it off completely. There is sometimes a ruler line displayed
as well that can confuse screen readers. It probably makes sense to turn
that off.
IBM Personal Communications and Reflections, and therefore I assume
Hummingbird, will sometimes convert certain areas of the text on the screen
to be clickable with a mouse. They refer to these as hot spots. A common
case is when PF keys are displayed. If there is a message like PF3 end,
PF12 cancel, clicking on PF3 with a mouse will cause the emulator to
generate a PF3 keystroke. These hot spots could affect the appearance in
such a way as to cause problems when reading with a screen reader.
Therefore, I turn hot spots off just to be sure.
Sometimes there are other visual effects such as on-screen keyboards and
such that it might be best to disable. It may also make sense to try to
turn off 3270 graphics.
There is sometimes the ability to have the mouse track the cursor. This can
cause the mouse pointer to be at the same location as the cursor and could
cause the cursor identification to be inconsistent. I usually turn that
off.
Not everything above is going to have an effect on all 3270 emulators. I
have no way of knowing when JAWS can get the cursor location from the system
rather than analyzing the display to find the cursor, for example. Even
picking the system cursor blink rate may be less effective than choosing a
fast blink rate depending upon how the blink rate is handled by the
software. What I am saying is that some of my choices may not necessarily
be all that relevant in all cases.
Corporations are getting pretty strict about which software they will permit
to be installed on their computers. However, I did try a demo of QWS3270
which is a pretty cheap emulator and it seemed to work all right with JAWS
not long ago. However, IBM Personal Communications 6 seems to be pretty
stable for me now. There is a more complicated version that includes other
capabilities, but I don't know if that works or not. I don't expect all of
the above is new to either of you, but maybe something will give you more to
try.
Best regards,
Steve Jacobson
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NFBCS
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 7:52 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
Hi Steve.
The emulator most people in my shop are using is Hummingbird, which I
believe is the latest incarnation of Extra or Reflections.
It works OK for a little while, then starts acting up.
In my experience, emulators are very sensitive to font size, and Hummingbird
sometimes changes the font size without warning. Or so it seems. But
that's only part of the problem.
Tracy
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS [mailto:nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson
via NFBCS
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2019 10:50 PM
To: NFB in Computer Science Mailing List
Cc: Steve Jacobson
Subject: Re: [NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
Tracy,
Which emulator are you having trouble with? I tried to use the Moccia 3270
emulator because they were moving to that at work, and although I got it to
work, the response to cursor movement was terrible. It seemed to be using a
very slow blink rate that I could not change. I have had pretty good luck
with IBM's Personal Communication 3270 emulator, I think version 6.2, and
that works pretty well once one changes some settings. I have never done
much with a script, though, other than getting me the cursor location and a
few things like that.
I think it would be pretty hard to do a script without access to the
emulator. The script may be making JAWS crash and the likely crash can
probably be found, but it sounds like there are interactions with the cursor
that are not correct as well. Maybe I am wrong, though.
Best regards,
Steve Jacobson
-----Original Message-----
From: NFBCS <nfbcs-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Tracy Carcione via NFBCS
Sent: Monday, December 9, 2019 9:37 AM
To: 'NFB in Computer Science Mailing List' <nfbcs at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Tracy Carcione <carcione at access.net>
Subject: [NFBCS] Jaws scripts and terminal emulation
I have been using the same Jaws script and terminal emulator for more than
20 years, and they still work very well. However, my boss would prefer, if
possible, that I use the same emulator as my co-workers. I'm OK with that,
but it behaves erratically.
When I log in or out, Jaws crashes and has to be restarted. I researched
that with a helpful person on this list who works for Freedom Scientific,
and he identified the crash as a script problem.
Moving around in Edit, Jaws reports a different character under the cursor
than the braille display shows, and the braille is right. But, other times,
the braille display starts jumping, flipping back and forth too rapidly to
read. Both these things are deal-breakers for me.
Are these probably issues with the script, as well?
Could we hire a consultant to fix the script I have now? It works very
well, for the most part.
How would we test any mods, if the consultant doesn't have a terminal
emulator?
What would be the estimated cost of such a project?
If a script writing consultant wants to write offlist, my email is
Carcione at access.net.
Thanks.
Tracy
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