Re: Ride, new code editor for blinds
I have to say that this is a great idea. This feature , which essentially allows you to navigate through your code by indentation is something I have been thinking of for some time now.
This is a feature that I feel is essential for any blind programmer that would like to develop programs using a language like python or swift, where code blocks are not enclosed by curly brackets.
For languages like Java or C++ it is not as useful, since in an IDE like Eclipse, you can jump to pairing brackets and thus achieve essentially the same effect as navigating by indentation, since code blocks are enclosed in brackets in these languages.
But in languages like python this is not possible, due to the lack of these enclosing brackets. So having this feature would make it much easier for a blind programmer to navigate through their code.
I just wish instead of it being a standalone editor, it was instead made as a plug in for an open source IDE like eclipse, since other than missing this feature, PyDev is a great IDE for python programming for blind people because of Eclipse’s accessibility.
If there is anyone with the skills to do this, could they please take this feature of navigating through code by indentation and make it as a plugin for eclipse. It would be tremendously helpful, especially in combination with the PyDev plug in for eclipse.
Also about what Ethin was raving about. I think he completely missed the point of this editor. It seems from his previous posts that he just thought that this editor does code folding. But this navigating by indentation is not at all like code folding. Code folding is something entirely different.
To use code folding you have to write extra lines in your code like #region and #end region to denote parts of code to fold. Also the keyboard shortcutsto collapse and expand folded code tend to be complicated, often requiring three or more keys to pressed at once. This is because code is not meant to be unfolded a lot, since pretty much all programmers that use code folding, use it to hide away messy and/or disorganized code.
Navigating by indentation needs to be automatic. If the programmer needs to waste time to write #region someName … #end region
Then the hole purpose of having faster navigation is beaten.
It also needs to be simple and fast. No complicated shortcuts. Simply up/ down arrow navigates to the next/previous line of code on same indentation level. Alt + right navigates to first line of nested code block. Alt + left arrow navigates to header of code block. That’s it.
And so because of this this is actually very different from code folding and is actually very useful. In fact I see it as nearly essential for a blind programmer to develop comfortably in a language like python if they are making a complex program.
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