Hi David.
The one point I want to respond to is that I personally have written
apps for people who needed help with a particular, very specific,
request. In short, you don't have to be a script-writer to be the
beneficiary of the scripting feature of Window-Eyes. You can always ask
for help, and the goodness of people's hearts can show itself. This is
the real benefit of the web today.
Supportively,
Rod
On 5/09/13 3:30 AM, David wrote:
In one way, I guess you could say 7.2 worked pretty stabil. And,
sometimes, you get a feeling the newer versions are getting out the
door somehow "pre-mature". WE8 was released less than six months ago,
and they already have upgraded that one twice. Unfortunately, that
seems to be the case with a load of software - these days.
Now, downgrading to 7.2; I would be rather careful. A few reasons for
such precautions. Up till now, we have seen versions of WE supporting
everything from XP and up. So, 7.2 would still support that flavor of
windows. But in just under 11 months, Microsoft is going to pull the
XP plug. That is less than a year from now.By then, my guess is, that
you will have a really hard time in finding any Windows7 machines on
the market - at least, if you are going for a new computer. Taking the
plunge from XP to Windows8, will be a tremmendous jump, that I am just
in the starting of performing myself. No plunge I would really
recommend. But by then, you will also have no choice when comes to the
version of Window-Eyes. At least, not for 7.2. Far as my memory goes,
it did not support Windows7 and up. Arrest me, if I am wrong.
The consequences would be, that you less than a year from now, will
have to learn a new Widnows interface, along with having to come back
to the modern flavors of Window-Eyes. That would make your learning
curve even steeper. In general, downgrading that far back in time,
will cause little other than trouble.
You might find, that your old XP machine with WE7.2 installed, runs
perfectly smoothly right now. And, so you determine it is due to 7.2
being all that stabil. Yet, likely you will realize, if you take 7.2
into a more modern system, that it might be facing instability issues
of some higher frequency.
Still another reason for being careful about downgrading to 7.2, is
the feature of installing apps. Many apps from App Central, have been
developed the last two years. That means, quite a number of them, have
never been developed for anything pre-7.5. Even the ones that was
developed back then, might have been updated. Updating an app, might
include adding on certain new features - exposed to, or hidden from
the end-user - that depend on facilities that were not available in
older versions of WE. Therefore, you could end up with some of the
apps you depend on in your computer activity, not being running
properly due to them not being developed for older versions of WE.
Imagine, what kind of instability issues that could accomplish.
I could agree, that it seems the newer versions of our screen reader,
does exhibit certain instabilities, that was not the case in older
versions. I am not going into a discussion on why, simply just stating
that is what seems to be the case. And as such, it would be great to
see a version of Window-Eyes again hit the market, that would have
straightened out a handful of stabilities. And the issue of not being
able to use the mouse in modern versions of Internet Explorer, would
but stand as one example of things that would be high on many a
wishlist. Yet, you won't really solve much of these, by downgrading.
At least, not for very long.
What puzzles, is the fact that many issues are being solved by
freeware products like NVDA, Firefox and others - whilst the paid for
programs like Window-Eyes and Jaws, seem to stick too much with their
old code, and displaying issues that apparently could have a technical
solution. You would have thought, that you get what you pay for. I am
still quite clear on the matter: It is worth to pay for a screen
reader. NVDA, has come a long way, but still have essential lackings
in being your main screen reader. Yet, having all that said, NVDA
several times has been my only way around certain computer activities.
And, when we ask on the list here, we are told that if we want
anything, go ahead and develop an app for it. Apps are great, but they
take enormous amount of time to develop. First of all, not everyone
has the skills and resources to develop apps, and even if they do,
will have to learn the many hidden secrets of developing good, stabil,
working apps. So, as I said, it puzzles that the technical solutions
seem to be around, but if you want them, you might often be better off
with a freeware, than to throw a thousand dollars on the table. Maybe
GW should have prioritized some of the stability issues, ahead of
introducing the new interface of window-eyes 7.5. First you get used
to the interface, I do see many benefits from the new interface. Yet,
I do prefer a stabil version of my screen reader in all my hundreds of
computer activities every day, quite much above a fancy-looking
interface, which I might operate a couple of times a week. This, just
to give but one example, of a prioritizing issue, where it seems the
whole computer industry has gone down the wrong lane, and seem to
treasure the fanciness far ahead of functionality. :)
----- Original Message ----- From: "Trenton Matthews"
<[email protected]>
To: "Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc." <[email protected]>
Cc: "Gwmicro gw-info mail list" <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, May 09, 2013 2:06 AM
Subject: Re: WE 8.2 IE 10 and the mouse.
I have to agree, version 7.2 was honestly the best! version of WE to
date.
Nothing can top that one!
It just, well, worked!
Honestly, Firefox 3.6.28, is still the best with WE, least for me.
Not saying that it doesn't work with the latest versions, but there's
just many things it worked better with back in the day.
On 5/8/13, Olusegun -- Victory Associates LTD, Inc.
<[email protected]> wrote:
Hi Sandra:
I think you might be better off waiting for Window-Eyes to get
cleaned up
some more before upgrading at work. I work for myself and, because
I submit
claims via a state web portal for adjudication, I can't use FireFox
either.
Fortunately for me though, I run three versions of Window-Eyes at
work--7.2,
7.5.4.1 and 8.2. The first two are on two separate computers in my
back
office. I swear that Window-Eyes 7.2 boots up a lot faster than the
other
two incarnations. It is what I use in my back office 99% of the
time. And
since I am still running Windows XP Professional Service Pak3, I use
Internet Explorer 8. I am in fact thinking of downgrading it to
Internet
Explorer 7.
At home on a Windows7 Professional laptop computer running Internet
Explorer
10, the story is NOT A PRETTY ONE with Window-Eyes 8.2. I now plan to
install NVDA on this machine and try to give it a test drive. I've not
renewed the SMA for Window-Eyes for the reasons everyone seems to be
grappling with. May be when we get to Version 10xxxxx--and I want
to avoid
HAVING TO PAY for CUMULATIVE UPGRADES--Window-Eyes will become what
it was
several moons back.
Sincerely,
Olusegun
Denver, Colorado
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