[nvda-addons] Re: Symbol Insertion dialog addon
- From: "Joseph Lee" <joseph.lee22590@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <nvda-addons@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 08:21:55 -0700
Hi Derek and all,
Very good points.
Another thing to note is that not all synthesizers have implemented a way to
pronounce majority of these Unicode characters, so it may create more work
than needed - not only use the proposed add-on, but also modify the
voice-specific speech dictionary to allow the synthesizer to pronounce the
symbol correctly.
Lastly, I would like to take this time to bring up something that was in my
mind for a while: just because another screen reader has a feature doesn't
mean NVDA should follow and implement it. Some of these features found in
other screen readers were implemented when it was difficult for users to
work with a particular app, or needed to use a feature in specific
circumstances. Although it is good to see that NVDA is starting to support
professional applications, we should not be caught up within a storm of
feature duplication, as some of the recent suggestions and add-on ideas are
somewhat questionable (in my opinion). Also, just because one person needs a
specific feature doesn't mean others are in need of it - perhaps later when
the need arises (some of our current add-ons were started as personal
projects, then the authors decided to share them with the community in hopes
that others will find it useful).
Cheers,
Joseph
-----Original Message-----
From: nvda-addons-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:nvda-addons-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of derek riemer
Sent: Tuesday, October 21, 2014 6:20 AM
To: nvda-addons@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [nvda-addons] Re: Symbol Insertion dialog addon
Not a bad idea I don't think. I will throw some points out.
From a developer's perspective, this presents a number of interesting
challenges.
(what is a "common symbol")
(I feel, this shouldn't be merged into nvda core when done, if we do it,
because if it is, then that defetes the purpose of nvda only providing
screen reader capabilities).
Similar features exist with the emodicons addon. Of course that uses emogie,
but could this be part of an emogie addon? I mean, we were thinking of
writing an extended speech dictionaries addon, why not just add some common
symbols and such? It would be as easy to do that as it wouldd be to write a
whole new implementation.
As well, If you do scientific or mathematical work on a computer with a
screen reader like you were mentioning, I will throw a word of wisdom that I
have had to figure out as I started using computers for mathematics
relatively recently.
You really oar putting yourself into a hole by using microsoft word or other
wysiwyg editors for mathmatics. You probably should learn how to use nemeth
and use nemetex ( http://www.accessisoft.com/nemetex.htm ) or learn how to
type math in la tex. It has a much much harder learning curve, but it will
save you hour's of work in word being frustrated.
This is because word was not designed to do mathematical writing. At most,
word was written for publishing an equation or a few equations. If you need
to use word, you might take a look at the mathtype plugin for word, as that
will allow easier creation of the symbols you need. A symbols list won't fix
the issue of going to the word symbols list, it will just outsource the
symbols list to nvda itself. Please provide any feedback to me if you feel I
am wrong though.
Thanks,
Derek
Subscribe to my new mailing list for blind people to discuss technology.
//www.freelists.org/list/at-discuss4vi
On 10/21/2014 06:57, Bhavya shah wrote:
> Dear all,
> You all might say that such an add-on wouldn't benefit the blind,
> because the sighted people currently do it the same way as screen
> reader (NVDA specifically, not JAWS) users do, but a similar feature
> is present in JAWS, which in my experience, is found useful by all
> people who type Maths (including me).
> So, the action I m talking about here is symbol insertion.
> By symbols, I am referring to mathematical symbols, scientific symbols
> and practically any other symbol.
> Normally, a person to type complex symbols has to either press a key
> if one on his or her keyboard is assigned to the desired symbol (which
> is highly unlikely in the case of complex symbols and mainstream
> keyboards), or if the current application provides, then access the
> application specific Symbols list dialog and after locating the
> desired symbol, press Enter on it. By the way, I have also heard of a
> method of typing symbols by the numeric keypad, but haven't found any
> laptop keyboard alternative.
> So, I propose the creation of an add-on in which:
> When the user presses a particular keystroke the Symbol Insertion
> dialog comes up.
> The Symbol Insertion dialog contains a predefined list of some
> symbols, which can be quickly accessed by first letter navigation and
> when pressed Enter on, the symbol gets typed into the current editable
> field, if any has focus.
> The dialog contains the following buttons:
> Type button : types the currently selected symbol Copy to clipboard
> button: This option copies the currently selected symbol to the
> clipboard, so that the user can type that quickly by a Ctrl V.
> Add... button: This button opens the Add Custom Symbols dialog box,
> where the user is allowed to add custom symbols. The Add Custom
> Symbols dialog contains the options; Symbol: edit field (where user
> can enter the custom symbol) and the Replacement: edit field: (where
> the user can enter the custom name of the symbol, name is displayed in
> the Symbol Insertion dialog, where the name decides the first letter
> navigation). and the Add button and Cancel button (which do the action
> their names suggest).
> Delete button: This button deletes the currently selected symbol from
> the Symbol Insertion dialog, to remove symbols that the user does not
> use at all, and thereby reduce clutter and allow faster first letter
> navigation.
> Cancel button: This button exits the dialog without performing any action.
> When the user hits the Enter key on the currently selected symbol or
> on the Type button, the dialog should be automatically exitted.
> If Jamie and Mick Sir allow, and if such an addon is created, then it
> can be merged into NVDA itself.
> I hope someone may be able to develop such an addon.
> I would appreciate any assistance.
> Best Regards
> Bhavya Shah
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