Re: [orca-list] NVDA seen from an Orca-user perspective

["mk360" <rexxe tutopia com>]

Well, that is true, NVDA is realli faster on webpages, sometimes faster than 
other screen readers on windows for example JAWS, and from my point of view 
than orca.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Victor Tsaran" <vtsaran gmail com>
To: "Mario Lang" <mlang delysid org>
Cc: <orca-list gnome org>
Sent: Thursday, June 05, 2008 7:49 PM
Subject: Re: [orca-list] NVDA seen from an Orca-user perspective


> Hi Mario,
> I suggest that you compare with the latest snapshots of NVDA rather than
> version 0.5.
> You would be rather surprised.
> I think NVDA is significantly faster, particularly on the web, because
> of a DLL library that supports virtual buffer storage and retrieval.
> It's hard to compare these two products because they rely on totally
> different APIs and operating systems.
> V
>
> Mario Lang wrote:
> > Hi.
> >
> > For various reasons I've had to use a Windows desktop for a few tasks 
> > recently,
> > and decided to give NVDA (0.5) a try.  In short, I was positively 
> > supprised.
> >
> > To avoid getting too far off-topic, I am avoiding any NVDA propaganda. 
> > Its
> > simple enough to find, install and use, no further introduction 
> > necessary.
> > What I'd like to do though is look at it from the perspective of an Orca 
> > user.
> >
> > In general, Orca feels much more complete, especially since it offers 
> > braille
> > support, which NVDA does not.
> > Both use espeak as a synthesis engine (while both have other options to 
> > choose
> > from).
> > Both do not work with login dialogs yet[1]. So you have to invoke them 
> > after
> > you login.  GNOME offers a nice built-in dialog to enable Orca (and other
> > assistive technologies) after login automatically.
> >
> > But where NVDA is ahead is with language detection.  It doesn't make
> > sense to force the user to configure their synthesis language
> > if they already have installed their OS in a specific language, and 
> > therefore
> > its obvious what is going to be spoken most of the time.
> > This is something that would add to the ease of use of Orca as well.
> > If we would just use the language settings available to figure out
> > if such a voice can be used with the configured synthesis backend,
> > we'd make Orca more easy to use to people with first languages other
> > then english.
> >
> > Another thing that I noticed is the main window design used by NVDA.  It 
> > uses
> > a menubar to make basic configuration tasks accessible, and has a 
> > read-only
> > text editor window with very basic introductory text as well as a list of 
> > the
> > most important key bindings as the main UI element.  What that means is 
> > that
> > you can get initial help when you launch your screen reader the first 
> > time
> > very easily: just hit the arrow keys to go down line by line.  This way, 
> > I got
> > up and running with the most important key bindings (and the screen 
> > reading
> > concept employed) in NVDA in about 2 minutes.
> >
> > While the Orca help button is going to be useful on its own level,
> > I think we should consider this neat idea of interactive first time user
> > introduction.
> >
> > All in all, I think both projects have done a great job so far and have 
> > great
> > potential.  However, Orca is way ahead.  Thanks to everyone involved.
> >
> > [1] While Orca is supposed to work with gdm, I never got it working, and 
> > know
> > nobody that had it working either.  Since NVDA can not run as a Windows
> > service yet, it does not even start during the login phase.
>
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