[jawsscripts] Re: BX Public Release
- From: chad.foster@xxxxxxxxxx
- To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, "Doug Lee" <doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:09:59 -0400
Woohoo - and it is finally out!!
Thanks Doug,
Chad
On 9/11/07, Doug Lee <doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Some of you have known for a long time of the utility I am about to
> mention; some of you will never have heard of it at all. Since it's
> mostly a scripter's assistant though, I thought people might want to
> know about it here.
>
> After four and a half years of continuing research, development, and
> regular use, the tool I now call BX, the JAWS Toolbox, or just BX for
> short, is publicly released! I am placing it under the BSD license, a
> copy of which may be found in the manual (such as it is), on the
> license screen shown during automatic installation, and at the bottom
> of the individual source code files. This tool has been known as BX
> since March of 2003 but was then also called the Bart Explorer, which
> I mention in case anyone here remembers hearing that name.
>
> The tool can be found at
>
> http://www.dlee.org/bx/
>
> I'll tackle a few questions before anyone asks:
>
> Q: Why is there so terribly little documentation??
>
> A: Because BX came into existence first and foremost as my personal
> ways to solve a lot of individual problems I encountered while
> scripting and testing. It then became a tool used by my coworkers at
> Bartimaeus Group, which is now SSB BART Group; and rather than taking
> the time to write a lot of stuff down when they had questions, I just
> talked to them. In other words, it evolved just about like any other
> thing evolves when born directly of necessity: function came before
> form, and form sometimes never came at all. <grin> Honestly, the lack
> of documentation was one of the biggest reasons I never publicized
> this thing until now.
>
> Q: Is there any support?
>
> A: Officially not at this time. Since I have a full-time job, I
> don't have time to support Skype scripts, BX, or anything else to any
> great extent in my own time. However, the JAWSScripts list seems a
> fine place to encourage questions, because this will, hopefully,
> result in more than just me being able to provide answers eventually.
> If there is a major issue over support, I may consider offering
> support in a room at the For The People web site,
>
> http://www.for-the-people.com
>
> If my company, SSB BART Group, wishes, support may also be offered in
> some form by the company. All this is speculation now though.
>
> Q: What JAWS versions are supported?
>
> A: I've run BX myself since JAWS 3.7, but I have not tested it in
> JAWS versions older than 6.0 recently. BX is designed to use whatever
> it can, so if you get an "Unknown function call" message in an older
> JAWS version when you try to do something in BX, this is as they say,
> not a bug but a feature. BX will let you try just about anything
> without making assumptions about what a particular JAWS version will
> allow.
>
> Q: Where do I start?
>
> A: Read the readme.txt file in the Zip file for preliminary
> information. Read bxman.htm, which is in the "bin" and "src/doc"
> folders in the zip and is installed in settings\enu when you install
> BX, for more information on what BX can do, how to get help from
> inside it, etc. The installer, jfw_bx.exe, is probably the easiest
> way to install BX for the first time. Unfortunately though, I don't
> think it works on all systems, as it was written quite some time ago
> and I've not found time to work much on keeping it up to date. Manual
> installation of BX is similar to manual installation of JGauge.
>
> And finally, though I also do this in longer form in the manual, I wish
> to thank the members of the original Bartimaeus Group and of SSB BART
> Group as it now stands for helping to form BX. As individuals, they
> contributed feedback and suggestions that helped shaped the tool; and
> the companies in general, and Jonathan Avila in particular, encouraged
> BX's early development in several ways. I should also thank Michael
> (Mick) Curran for a central idea to BX, Jamal Mazrui for a number of
> suggestions, Victor Tsaran for the installer and a lot of ideas, and a few
> testers over the years for their time and thoughts. Last but not least,
> I must thank Freedom Scientific, because the JAWS scripting language,
> though probably not meant for something quite like this, proved powerful
> enough to permit it. Though this may someday change, I now know of no
> other screen reader that would have made this thing possible, and no way
> to do this half as conveniently for a blind person with an application
> or any other approach that is not part of the screen reader itself.
>
> --
> Doug Lee, Access Technology Programmer
> SSB BART Group
> mailto:doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://www.ssbbartgroup.com
> "While they were saying among themselves it cannot be done,
> it was done." --Helen Keller
> __________
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>
>
--
Chad Foster
Access Technology Solutions
http://www.GO-ATS.net
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