*grimace* I was, frankly, embarrassingly unaware of the XCode
unfriendliness with VO. Thanks for getting me hip to that. I do know
- from reading the publicly posted job description - that Apple's
just-hired accessibility software engineer will be working on the
development tools. That's an encouraging indicator. That being said,
a fresh reminder is probably a good thing. It needs to go to the
right person. I can forward it on to the manager of Developer
Relations Assistive Technology Segment. She doesn't fool around with
this stuff and will actually let the engineers know what's up (though
I'd be surprised if they're not aware and working on this).
Joe
On Mar 7, 2006, at 12:40 AM, Travis Siegel wrote:
It is an excellent system, there's no doubt of that. Unfortunately
though, Xtools isn't very vo friendly, and complaints to apple on
this topic have fallen on deaf ears. Although, I do have to admit,
that 10.4.5/6 do work considerably better than 10.4.2 did, so I
guess they're working on it slowly behind the scenes. It's just
frustrating as all hell knowing exactly what needs done, and yet
being unable to do it. I've given up on C++ development, and now
do all my programming in pascal, using the gpc plugin. All
interfaces need to be coded from scratch (menus,, buttons, scroll
bars, and so on) but even though it's more work, at least it's
doable, and I need not worry about having to make connections
between objects with inaccessible tools. <sigh> I sure wish apple
would fix this, I can see it's an excellent development
environment, but there's just no way I can use it on my own, and
getting my wife to do things for me (even if it's just adding text
labels to graphical elements) isn't a whole lot of fun, since she
continues to insist she doesn't know how it works, even after I've
told her exactly what to look for, click on, and even where to
click *grumble*
Ah well, at least it still works to some degree.
But besides that, my biggest complaint is the inability to even
change existing interfaces using Xtools. I want to simply rename
some items on the input screen of a program I have source to, and
using vo, you simply can't do it with xtools. Oh sure, I can save
the nib files in ascii format, use pico and make the changes, but
this often doesn't work properly, because even though the name
changes on the screen, the input field becomes unusable due to lack
of matching definitions required by the interface builder. If
apple would fix that one flaw, I could *almost* use the silly thing.
On Mar 6, 2006, at 10:37 PM, Kafka's Daytime wrote:
Hi Jane,
Sure, happy to post the info. Cocoa and XCode make for a great
development environment. It's hard (for me, at least) to use
anything else now. And yes, it certainly doesn't hurt that all
this good stuff is free. :)
Joe
On Mar 6, 2006, at 10:31 PM, Jane Jordan (Gmail) wrote:
Hi, Joe.
Thanks for clarifying. :) Guess I got confused.
Jane
On Mar 6, 2006, at 9:23 PM, Kafka's Daytime wrote:
The basic "Online" ADC membership is totally free. There are
also paid "Select", "Premier" and "Student Developer" account
types which come with additional benefits and discounts. The
free account gives you access to all of the information needed
to learn and develop with Cocoa.
Joe
On Mar 6, 2006, at 10:17 PM, Jane Jordan (Gmail) wrote:
It's not entirely free for students, is it? I looked at it
once before and it *seemed* like college students or whatever
had to pay. Is this true? Weird, if so.
Jane
On Mar 6, 2006, at 9:09 PM, Kafka's Daytime wrote:
Hi Jane,
Apple's "Getting Started With Cocoa" developer document is a
good place to start. You can access this and lots of other
Cocoa development info (including tutorials) with a free
membership in Apple Developer Connection (ADC).
Link to ADC home:
http://developer.apple.com/
Link to "Getting Started With Cocoa":
http://developer.apple.com/referencelibrary/GettingStarted/
GS_Cocoa/index.html
I hope the info helps!
Joe
On Mar 6, 2006, at 10:02 PM, Jane Jordan (Gmail) wrote:
Anyone know where there's a beginner's guide to writing
Coco? Free would be nice, but hey ... My husband is
considering learning it.
Jane
