RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release

Thanks ... I just hope things don't keep coming up ... but once December
rolls on in, my schedule will  obviously be different, and so I can probably
dedicate some time into getting some of this out of the door. I definitely
want to finish one, if not the first two bullets on that list I sent out,
before the end of this year, but we'll see ... thanks for the support.

Oh, Jamal: I've been working with the office of legal affairs and the
university's patent board and such, so everything I mentioned should be able
to be open source and open to modification, but you must understand how
difficult and arduous of a process that is at a huge university, so we need
to go through that step by step.

Luckly, the java screen reader I wrote isn't subject to that.

Take care,
Sina

-----Original Message-----
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 3:05 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release

That's an exciting roadmap -- go for it, Sina!
Jamal
On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Sina
Bahram wrote:

> Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 14:34:50 -0500
> From: Sina Bahram <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
> Reply-To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
>
> Unfortunately not, as far as a date goes, but I can give a tentative 
> order of operations schedule, I think.
>
> I want to merge my group's work with Jay's various packages, and 
> develop a story that we can start to tell about how these tools can 
> come together and be useful. Often times, releasing something is only 
> the most basic and minimal of steps ... putting them together in a 
> coherent way, such that they are useful, visible, and accessible to 
> all, in lots of different senses of those words, makes for a much more 
> comprehensive and, I humbly feel, better user experience.
>
> Next, I want to work with Mike Grace, the lead developer, to finish up 
> a release of the universal access bridge, which will include a plug-in 
> that will make the application self-voicing ... this plug-in will 
> contain the same technologies as used in the java screen reader I have 
> written, and will most likely get significantly expanded with Jay's 
> assistance. We also have some other features that are necessary for 
> the Remote Access Bridge, such as single sign-on support, API 
> compliance with the Virtual Computing Lab's XML RPC protocol at NC State
University, and so on.
>
> Finally, we want to all start working on putting things together in a 
> completely modular, package based way. Think of Eclipse's plug-in 
> infrastructure, but a bit easier to use, I dare say, and much more 
> simple to implement once our helper classes are complete, which will 
> be happening during this entire process. We already have this 
> mechanism working quite beautifully for the Remote Access Bridge, and 
> I'd like to extend it to a library based approach to offer SSIP 
> services, speech recognition services, screen reading services, remote 
> desktop services, multiple voice TTS services, and a lot more.
>
> Take care,
> Sina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal 
> Mazrui
> Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 2:09 PM
> To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
>
> I understand.  Can you give a time estimate on the first public beta 
> (explicitly designated as such)?
> Jamal
> On Fri, 30 Nov 2007, Sina Bahram wrote:
>
> > Date: Fri, 30 Nov 2007 13:50:38 -0500
> > From: Sina Bahram <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
> > Reply-To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> >
> > It can do a lot more, at any case. You see, the java access bridge 
> > isn't the only thing that has access to such things, so sometimes, 
> > folks can gleam more information about objects.
> >
> > I'll want to do lots more integration on the screen reading 
> > component before releasing it. I've learned, and gotten burned by, 
> > releasing too soon, especially on this list, remember?
> >
> > So I really want to make sure things are up to snuff, some QA is 
> > done, and so on, before I dare even releasing a beta.
> >
> > Take care,
> > Sina
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal 
> > Mazrui
> > Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 11:02 AM
> > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> >
> > Are you saying that a Java screen reader you have written will 
> > enable Java applications that are currently not accessible with JAWS 
> > to become accessible?  That would be major, so I look forward to any 
> > URLs you can post that show this capability.
> >
> > Jamal
> > On Thu, 29 Nov 2007, Sina Bahram wrote:
> >
> > > Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:48:54 -0500
> > > From: Sina Bahram <sbahram@xxxxxxxxx>
> > > Reply-To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> > >
> > > Everything you said and a lot more is possible with the 
> > > combination of the screen reader I've written, the SSIP 
> > > technologies a friend and coworker of mine have worked on, and the 
> > > use of the abstraction layer that Jay has developed.
> > >
> > > Take care,
> > > Sina
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal 
> > > Mazrui
> > > Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 10:31 PM
> > > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> > >
> > > Hi Jay,
> > > Are you saying that this would make a Java application self 
> > > voicing even if it was built without accessibility in mind, or 
> > > that a developer interested in accessibility could make an 
> > > application self-voicing by making calls to this server?  If the 
> > > latter, is the idea similar to the extra speech messages I have 
> > > implemented in my applications?  In other words, is this an API 
> > > whereby a developer can make an application generate speech using 
> > > the screen reader currently in use?  Is the idea that the 
> > > developer does not have to know the particular screen reader API, 
> > > but can write to a general one and SSIP will determine what screen 
> > > reader is in use and how to make
> it talk?
> > >
> > > Jamal
> > > On Wed, 28 Nov 2007, Macarty, Jay
> > > {PBSG} wrote:
> > >
> > > > Date: Wed, 28 Nov 2007 16:43:39 -0600
> > > > From: "Macarty, Jay  {PBSG}" <Jay.Macarty@xxxxxxxx>
> > > > Reply-To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> > > >
> > > > Jamal,
> > > > I'll let Sina respond to the Linux questions. But for the java 
> > > > questions you asked, here are the answers:
> > > >
> > > > 1. Yes, the sample SSIPClient jar, which will come with the 
> > > > server installation, could be used to self voice a java application.
> > > >
> > > > 2. To simply self voice a java application would not require 
> > > > knowledge or use of the accessibility framework. If one simply 
> > > > wished to self voice a particular event, such as a button being 
> > > > pressed or the content of a JTextArea, one would only need to 
> > > > create an instance of the SSIPClient object in the desired class 
> > > > and then call the sayString method to vocalize the desired text.
> > > >
> > > > While the use of swing and the accessibility framework are not 
> > > > required, certainly choosing to take advantage of the fact that 
> > > > the framework is there is a big plus in self voicing an application.
> > > > also, if one wishes to create accessibility tools of a more 
> > > > general purpose, such as a java based screen reader solution, 
> > > > then utilizing the java accessibility API would be the best
approach.
> > > >
> > > > 3. If one were simply wishing to self voice a specific java 
> > > > application, the only thing you would need to do is include the 
> > > > SSIPClient jar in your classpath. If you were executing multiple 
> > > > applications from the same JRE, you could place the jar in the 
> > > > jre\lib\ext directory so that it would be picked up automatically.
> > > > However, if you were simply self voicing a single application, 
> > > > it would likely be preferable to include the SSIPClient jar in 
> > > > the classpath
> > > definition for that application.
> > > >
> > > > NOTE: While you need only include the client jar to be able to 
> > > > gain connectivity to the SSIP server, you must, of course, make 
> > > > sure that the server executable is running to receive the 
> > > > connection prior to when the java application tried to establish 
> > > > a session. This could be handled as simply as placing the launch 
> > > > of SSIPVoiceServer.exe in your startup folder.
> > > >
> > > > Again, if your intention was to develop a general purpose 
> > > > accessibility technology, such as a java screen reader, the 
> > > > configuration of the SSIP client itself isn't any harder but you 
> > > > would likely have to define the accessibility application to the 
> > > > JVM thru the accessibility.properties file.
> > > >
> > > > In addition to the work Sina is doing, the SSIP server, by 
> > > > itself, will include the server executable and some client 
> > > > wrappers for various environments such as java, AutoIt, ruby, 
> > > > and a DotNet assembly dll to allow one to include a SSIPClient 
> > > > namespace in whatever DotNet environment they are using.
> > > >
> > > > Hope this helps.
> > > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of 
> > > > Jamal Mazrui
> > > > Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2007 11:47 AM
> > > > To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > > > Subject: RE: SSIP for Windows -- beta almost ready for release
> > > >
> > > > Congratulations on your progress with this project, Jay!  Like 
> > > > others, I confess having trouble understanding the full 
> > > > ramifications.  Could you or Sina describe some vignettes from a 
> > > > user's
> > perspective?
> > > >
> > > > I think I understand that this technology would allow someone on 
> > > > a Windows computer (e.g., running JAWS) to operate a remote 
> > > > Linux computer with Orca.  Is that right?  Would JAWS need to be 
> > > > running after the connection was made?  If so, would there be 
> > > > key conflicts to manage between JAWS and Orca?
> > > >
> > > > Does this technology also allow Java applications to be self
voicing?
> > > > Do
> > > > they have to implement the Swing API according to accessibility 
> > > > guidelines?  If one has a Java app installed, how would the 
> > > > self-voicing part be added?
> > > >
> > > > I know from the quality of your skills and the time you have 
> > > > invested in this project that it is something with exciting 
> > > > potential.  I'm just trying to get a better grasp of what it 
> > > > would and
> > would not do.
> > > > If there are any sample apps or audio demos that illustrate the 
> > > > possibilities, that would be great.
> > > >
> > > > Cheers,
> > > > Jamal
> > > >
> > > >
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