Re: Accessible C++ Compiler
Visual studio sort of works, but it depends which version. Every version has its own unique special big problems, and I sort-of-jokingly call it the choose your hell adventure game. The problem is that for stuff beyond the basics, Visual Studio is it for windows-there are huge swathes of the Windows API that aren't on MinGW, and VS is the only IDE that talks to the MS compilers right.
Eclipse is more accessible, assuming you can get it set up in the first place. But doing that isn't so easy for C++, requiring as it does a working MinGW or Cygwin toolchaijn and a bunch of configuration.
Now, I'm going to be "helpful", but you're going to disagree. You won't in 6 months or so, but you probably will for now. I know of few if any blind programmers who don't follow this path in the end and I know of few if any just-starting blind programmers that like this answer. Nevertheless, it's the only one
I and everyone I know have found barring a great deal of experience as a sighted developer before going blind:
Use the command prompt. All your accessibility issues disappear, you get next to nothing from the IDE as a blind person, and literally any compiler works. You'll also be in a quite good position to program on Linux down the road, administer a webserver, or to go into a variety of other different places. It works with most programming languages, all version control systems I am aware of, and there are even some languages (like Python) where lots of sighted people do it, too. Using cin and cout is how it's done, and because your IDE isn't redirecting to inaccessible text controls, you get them read automatically. I know the command prompt can seem frightening, but barring some sort of legislative change or a suddenly philanthropic company caring and spending hundreds of thousands of dollars, you're going to spend more tim
e in the end fighting your IDE than just learning the command prompt.
If you have Visual Studio, you can get at it by looking up how to launch the developer command prompt; cl myfile.cpp compiles, myfile runs it. Literally everything reads with no further hoops. Specific directions depend on the version, but once you figure it out you can make a desktop shortcut. If you don't have Visual Studio, you want it because it's basically the only good Windows compiler.
What are you trying to do in C++, anyway? We may need to go into project management and build systems for anything larger than very very small. I'm not sure why C++ is coming up again-the "Should I use C++ for audiogames?" question has been hammered into the ground and buried forever, or I'd have thought anyway. If you're dead set on it, go look at CMake, and then be very very afraid. Or fight your IDE because your IDE does the same things,
only with a ton of accessibility "adventures". If you are dead set on C++ and nothing will sway you, then good luck for you will need it. But seriously-with C++, figuring out how to deal with inaccessible IDEs is only the beginning of the exquisite horror. I say this as an experienced programmer with thousands of lines of C++ code. The best thing you can do after figuring this problem out is to stop asking questions here and get on Stack Overflow-the answers to most of the C++-specific problems are well beyond the scope of what most people here do.
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