Re: [orca-list] Just a question of curiosity: What means Orca?

[Peter Korn <Peter Korn Sun COM>]

Hi Herman,

To expand a bit on Willie's answer with a brief historical perspective...

One of the first DOS screen readers was Flipper by Omnichron corporation 
in Berkeley, CA.  It was named Flipper in part because the blind wife of 
the programmer envisioned computers as being programmed by flipping 
switches (an accurate image of a bygone era).  Then came another DOS 
screen reader from Henter-Joyce in Florida -  "Jobs Access With Speech" 
(or JAWS).  Meanwhile in the UK we had the company Dolphin systems 
making their own DOS screen reader.

While there isn't otherwise an obvious connection between blindness and 
creatures from the sea, there is certainly a long tradition around it...


Regards,

Peter Korn
Accessibility Architect,
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

> Hi Hermann:
>
> The lore is that it is just keeping with the sea animal naming theme of
> screen readers.  Plus, Orca is a lot tougher sounding than Nemo, Ariel,
> Willy, or Mr. Limpet.
>
> Will
>
>
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