[jawsscripts] Re: BX Public Release
- From: Doug Lee <doug.lee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:25:19 -0400
Briefly, it puts in place of Home-Row mode a system that makes a lot
of single-letter commands do things. What a key does depends on what
"map" you're in, and there are maps for Window Navigation, MSAA
Navigation, Object Examination, and other things. In a map, you can
tab through choices and hit Enter to invoke one, which is a way of
using BX without memorizing every possible command. I believe, taking
all maps into account, there are some 1,300 commands available.
On Tue, Sep 11, 2007 at 08:17:43AM -0400, Peter Torpey wrote:
Doug,
Can you give us a brief description of what this utility is supposed to do?
I'm not familiar with it at all.
Thanks.
-- Pete
-----Original Message-----
From: jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jawsscripts-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Doug Lee
Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 7:53 AM
To: jawsscripts@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jawsscripts] BX Public Release
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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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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