Re: [orca-list] Changing the keybindings to be JAWS-like or

[Kyle <kyle4jesus gmail com>]

According to John Heim:
# What you are really saying is that it's okay for it to be really hard to
# try linux.  That is what you have just said. You have to do all this
# research in advance, join mailing lists, study the documentation,
# probably have 2 computers so you can have one in Windows while you try
# linux on the other. And if someone wants to just sit down, boot a live
# CD like sonar or vinux, and try it out, we don't care about them.

I don't think anyone said anything of the kind. But the truth of the
matter is that if you are going to sit down in front of a computer of
any kind, no matter what OS is running, you *must* learn how to use it.
This means reading documentation, manuals, online help, whatever,
joining e-mail lists or forums, doing research and taking time and
patience learning how stuff works. The first time someone uses Jaws,
what do they have to do? They have to read all kinds of documentation,
or go to a class at a blind school that teaches people how to use Jaws
and Windows. And the thing that makes it even harder is that many of the
keybindings are counterintuitive and illogical. For example, using Orca,
I can press insert+t to find out what time it is, or I can hold down
insert and double-tap t to get the date. What is it in Jaws? Something
like insert+f-something that makes no sense whatsoever, although this
may have changed, as it's been many years since I even used Jaws, so
long ago that it could still be authorized using floppy disks. Still,
the fact is that people take government funded classes for this stuff,
so it's nowhere near
as easy as some people seem to be saying that it is. And believe me,
Windows itself is no easier, especially since just as soon as you get
used to something, Microsoft goes and changes it. Yeah, everything
including GNOME does that as well, but how is Windows supposed to be
easier to learn when both Windows and Linux change the look and feel of
the interface from time to time?

No, I don't believe anyone said we need to make it intentionally hard
for people to use Linux, or to learn how to use it. On the other hand,
we can't change Orca to be exactly like another screen reader, as it is
a different screen reader on a different OS. Most of us also don't like
the illogical and counterintuitive nature of Jaws keybindings, so Orca
will not be adopting many of those by default. However, this stops no
one at all from setting whatever keybinding they like, especially
considering how easy this actually is to do.
~Kyle
http://kyle.tk/
-- 
"Kyle? ... She calls her cake, Kyle?"
Out of This World, season 2 episode 21 - "The Amazing Evie"