Re: [orca-list] links list

[Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com>]

Yes, NVDA is open source.  The platform it is on, however, is not and
it would not be a viable alternative to its closed source competitors
on that platform without it.  And, to be precise, NVDA has an elements
list feature not just a links list feature.  Jaws, the screen reader I
use is the same.  I can navigate linearly or create a list of anchors,
blockquotes, checkboxes, combo boxes divs, edit fields, form fields,
graphics, headings, place markers, lists items and lists themselves,
landmarks, frames, objects, radio buttons, spans, tables, unvisited
and visited links, and clickable objects with the javascript "onclick"
attribute. I left out paragraph because you can only do that linearly
as is the case with different and same elements.  The element lists
are very powerful because you don't have to go through them them
linearly.  If you have a page with hundreds of links or tens of
headings like, oh, say, a daisy book you are reading in firefox, for
instance, you use home and end to jump to the beginning and end of the
list respectively and you can type ahead to jump to items beginning
with a particular character.  At work where I have to look quickly
through very large reference materials in a web-based Knowledge
Management  System, it is a huge efficiency booster.  NVDA comes close
to that but doesn't deliver completely.  It is good enough for my
needs at home though.

To those of you who claim I'm being pessimistic, the proof is in the
pudding.  Do  a search for how often this topic has come up on the
Orca list or even on the vinux list, check the Orca area of gnome.org
where requested features are stored and find where the links list
patch was attempted to be created by that fellow in Germany, I believe
his name is Marcus.  All you can conclude is, some are interested,
most are indifferent, very very few know how to do it, even fewer
might be persuaded to if they can find the time, and the rest don't
want to do it.  And, if, someone does, it won't stick.  So, the
probability of Orca ever seeing this feature in the near or distant
future is extremely low.  That's not pessimism, that's just drawing a
reasonable conclusion based on past events.   It ain't gonna happen.

Alex M


On 12/6/12, Mike Reiser <mikereiser08 gmail com> wrote:
> Remember that NVDA is open source, and it has a links list. Just
> wanted to point that out.
> Mike
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Dec 6, 2012, at 8:18 PM, Alex Midence <alex midence gmail com> wrote:
>
> > It'll never happen, my friend.  Nobody who's ever experienced it is
> > knowledgeable or motivated enough to put this into Orca or Firefox
> > and, nobody who knows how wants to do it.  About a year and a half
> > ago, someone actually created the beginnings of a patch for Orca to do
> > this.  I don't know why but his patch never made it into Orca and
> > noone has pickec up where he left off and, depressingly enough., I
> > suspect noone ever will.  I don't think the browsing experience in
> > Linux will ever equal the one to be had in Windows.  In this,
> > proprietary software is clearly the winner.
> >
> > Sadly,
> > Alex M
> >
> >
> > On 12/5/12, Dattatray Bhat <bhatdv gmail com> wrote:
> > > I also think that 'list of links/ headings' feature should be part of
> > > Orca,
> > > not Firefox. But if anybody wants to check how the firefox extension
> > > worked, here are steps to install Firefox 3.6 and navigation bundle
> > > extension -
> > > Note: I am using Ubuntu 10.04
> > >
> > >   1. Download file
> > >
> > > ftp://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/3.6.28/linux-i686/en-US/firefox-3.6.28.tar.bz2
> > >   2. Extract its contents to home folder. This will create folder
> > > firefox
> > >   in home folder.
> > >   3. Download file http://www.mit.edu/~rjc/navigationBundle-1.4.xpi
> > >   4. Copy the file to ~/firefox.
> > >   5. Open terminal window. Run command ~/firefox/firefox. This launches
> > >   Firefox 3.6.28.
> > >   6. Go to File - Open File. Select file
> > >   ~/firefox/navigationBundle-1.4.xpi to open.
> > >   7. Software Installation window opens. Click on Install now.
> > >   8. Add-ons window opens. Click on Restart firefox.
> > >   9. Navigation bundle functionality is available in Tools - Navigation
> > >   menu.
> > _______________________________________________
> > orca-list mailing list
> > orca-list gnome org
> > https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> > The manual is at
> > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> > Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org
> > Find out how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp