Re: [orca-list] Concern about Oracle takeover

[Jason White <jason jasonjgw net>]

Steve Holmes <steve holmes88 gmail com> wrote:
> It also shows that if enough people could learn the
> necessary background and bone up their programming skills, just maybe a
> bucketfull of volunteers instead of a handfull might be able to help
> keep Orca up to date and compatible with on-going software changes. 

If some of those people could fix bugs in the associated software, I'm sure
that would help a lot, too.

I'm planning to work on my programming skills and to contribute to an
accessibility-related project; I haven't yet decided which one. Obviously,
much depends on how my time and availability evolve over the coming year, and
how that skill development progresses.

Orca is unusual among free and open-source accessibility software in that none
of the users, as far as I know, is also a developer. In Emacspeak, BRLTTY,
Speakup, Yasr, Liblouis, etc., some or all of the developers are people who
use the software regularly and who depend on it.

On the subject of acquiring the necessary background, I'm investigating this
issue at the moment. Computer science isn't my field of academic study or
research. I've learned a little along the way by reading books, which
obviously help, and in my case, I've read logic and set theory in connection
with my research at university. So, if a computer science textbook, for
example, gives a proof by induction or offers set-theoretic definitions of
graphs, trees etc., at least I'm familiar enough with logic and the methods of
proof that I can understand the language and the concepts involved.