Thanks, Bill. Regarding Emacspeak, I have no experience with it, mor with any aspects of Linux besides telnet and ftp to manage files on my web site. I have the sense that Emacspeak has a high learning curve, but is extremely powerful, so was interested in whether it was included in Vinux.
Regarding Mono, your message prompted me to do some reading on the Microsoft concerns. The Wikipedia article on Mono seems to be balanced,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono_ProjectI learned from it that the only credible areas of concern are related to some .NET-related technologies that Microsoft has not clarified as being free from any future patent claims, including ASP.NET, ADO.NET, and Windows Forms. The main parts of Mono, however, are under valid, free, open source licenses, including GPL. GUIs can be developed using GTK# if one wants to avoid the Windows Forms classes. Databases can be developed without ADO.NET. Web applications are probably better built on Linux with other technologies besides ASP.NET.
It is noteworthy that the Ubuntu board has decided that the Microsoft concerns are not sufficient for excluding Mono and Mono-based applications in the default distribution of Ubuntu -- from which Vinux is built. The Ubuntu position statement is at
https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2009-June/000584.htmlWhile I appreciate the FSF principles (almost all my projects are LGPL), I also think we need to balance practical interests in the realm of accessibility. FSF discourages the use of Windows, which is used by a majority of U.S. employers today. Apple is more closed than Microsoft in its software platforms, yet many blind people are thrilled by the revolutionary access to apps that VoiceOver and the IPhone are providing.
Jamal -----Original Message-----From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Bill Cox
Sent: Wednesday, June 02, 2010 9:36 AM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Cc: Sina Bahram Subject: Re: Vinux 3.0 released!Hi, Jamal. My concern with Mono is that Microsoft may be plotting to get the Linux community to depend on it, so they can then assert their patents against Linux users. The Free Software Foundation discourages using Mono. If Microsoft could give us proper legal assurances that no Mono users will ever be targeted for patent violations related to Mono and the various systems like UIA that they offer the Linux community through Mono, then the Free Software Foundation could support it, and so would I. Until then, we need to remember Microsoft's split-personality. They are wonderful supporters of accessibility, and generously care about people with disabilities. On the other hand, they hold no punches in maintaining their dominance in the software world.
Bill On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 9:28 AM, Jamal Mazrui <empower@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Sina and others willing to investigate Mono accessibility, As far as I can tell, Mono is supposed to be able to run C# 2.0 apps that use System.Windows.Forms controls. ono is available at http://go-mono.org Unfortunately, I could not figure out how to download the installer for Windows! think there is a graphical link. f anyone else figures this out, please let us know. I did a fruit basket in C# 2.0, without additional dependencies, that is part of the archive at http://EmpowermentZone.com/cs_fruit.zip Check out the archive inside called cs2_fruit.zip Also worth trying are existing Mono apps found on this page http://www.mono-project.com/Software Apparently, there are two GUI toolkits worth considering: TK# and WinForms. ome of the free apps on this page use either one of those GUItoolkits, which are probably worth comparing for accessibility. Microsoft and Novell are porting UIA to Mono, including a UIA bridge to the ATK accessibility API on Linux. t may be necessary to install that package to get accessibility support. t is available at http://www.mono-project.com/Accessibility Jamal On 6/1/2010 10:15 PM, Sina Bahram wrote:Jamal, What I can do is offer to test a gui you write in mono. Take care, Sina -----Original Message----- From: programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:programmingblind-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jamal Mazrui Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 8:35 PM To: programmingblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Vinux 3.0 released! Can any Linux users answer a question that I have not been able to find an answer to. ow accessible are GUIs created with the Mono framework? Jamal __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind __________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind__________ View the list's information and change your settings at //www.freelists.org/list/programmingblind
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