Re: [orca-list] Vim, is it usable for us?

[Mewtamer <mewtamer gmail com>]

Okay, most linux systems have a number of consoles, usually named tty1-tty12.

The GUI usually runs on tty1 and switching to tty2, tty3, etc. will
usually give you a text-based login prompt followed by the Linux
console.

On most GUIs, ctrl+alt+a function key will switch to the tty whose
number corresponds to the function key used(e.g. ctrl+alt+f2 will
switch you to tty2) and when in a console not running a GUI, alt+a
function key will do the same.

Some systems will have higher ttys(e.g. tty13-tty24), but I'm not sure
how these are accessed when present.

The general idea for using both graphical and text screen readers in
combination is that You'd have the GUI running in tty1 and would use
Orca with GUI applications in tty1. Meanwhile, the text screen reader
would be running on tty2-tty12 and you would switch to those consoles
for using command line and other text-mode applications with the text
screen reader.

If sound is properly configured, than you should be able to seemlessly
switch back and forth between graphical and text modes by switching
between ttys with the appropriate screen reader reading what you need
it to read on the active tty. And even without the switching between
graphical nd text modes, switching ttys is a powerful tool for
multi-tasking at the command line.

For example, if I'm writing something, I might have Firefox and Orca
running on tty1 incase I need to look something up online, my work
document open in an editor in tty2, tty3 in the same working directory
as tty2 to use wc to keep track of word count on my work document
without having to close or suspend the editor, I might use tty4 to
pull up local files from elsewhere on my machine, and I might have
some time consuming, automated process running in the background on
tty5.

Orca can work with terminal emulators, but I generally find switching
to a tty that isn't running a GUI and using a text screen reader is
often more straight forward for most text-only applications.