RE: Sodbeans update

  • From: "Stanzel, Susan - Kansas City, MO" <susan.stanzel@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "'programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx'" <programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 25 Sep 2009 06:06:44 -0500

Hi Listers,

Hi Listers,

I assume this is for something other than Java. I need something like this for 
Java. What languages will this work with? It sounds simply fabulous.

Susie Stanzel    programmer, U.S.D.A.

________________________________
From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Andreas Stefik
Sent: Thursday, September 24, 2009 4:48 PM
To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx; Sodbeans
Subject: Sodbeans update

Hello folks,

I wanted to send a quick update to this list with an update on the sodbeans 
project. Here goes!

1. We have completed the bare bones implementation of functions and objects 
into the guts of our custom compiler. This is a huge amount of work and it is 
still extremely buggy, but the architecture is more or less in place. This 
might not sound hard, but because our auditory debugger has to be "linked" to 
it, and it also has to go backwards, this is a very difficult piece of code to 
implement.

2. We are nearly finished with an auditory navigation tool for navigating 
between classes and methods. This is a navigation tool when not in the editor; 
the editor navigation will happen later.

3. We have finished implementing our auditory system into the debugger and are 
very proud of what we have so far. Virtually everything the debugger does now 
"talks." Here's some examples of stepping over and back in the debugger:


A. If you instantiate an object the debugger will say, "Creating Object" then 
its name. If you Step back (the opposite of step over in our reversing 
debugger), it will say, "Destroying object" then its name.

B. If you step over a line of code with an assignment statement, our debugger 
says "Set" variable name "to" then its value.

C. If you step over an if statement, it tells you that you stepped over an if 
and its value (true or false).

D. If you execute a function forward our debugger will say, "Calling method" 
then its name, whereas in reverse it says "Uncalling method" and again its name.

4. Next on our list, besides general bug fixing, is a redesign of the watch 
window to make it more accessible. We are still floating ideas around the 
office, but we've got a few possibilities that we think have real potential.

5. One of the blind developers that works with us on the project just completed 
a significant amount of work on the text-to-speech integration on macintosh. We 
now use sodbeans regularly on the mac.


So there's an update for those of you folks interested in the project. There's 
still an enormous amount of testing and programming that we need to do before 
we release, but we have been able to get a substantial amount of implementation 
finished in a time frame that is much faster than we originally expected. If 
all goes well, we should be able to run some internal usability studies within 
a few months.

Cheers,

Andreas Stefik, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Computer Science
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville


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