OT: accessibility (was "Re: simplified Python parsing question")

[Tim Chase]

On 07/30/12 21:11, Eric S. Johansson wrote:
> the ability for multiple people to work on the same document at 
> the same time is really important. Can't do that with Word or 
> Libre office.  revision tracking in traditional word processors 
> are unpleasant to work with especially if your hands are broken.

If you're developing, I might recommend using text-based storage and
actual revision-control software.  Hosting HTML (or Restructured
Text, or plain-text, or LaTeX) documents on a shared repository such
as GitHub or Bitbucket provides nicely for accessible documentation
as well as much more powerful revision control.

> It would please me greatly if you would be willing to try an 
> experiment. live my life for a while. Sit in a chair and tell 
> somebody what to type and where to move the mouse without moving 
> your hands. keep your hands gripping the arms or the sides of
> the chair. The rule is you can't touch the keyboard you can't
> touch the mice, you can't point at the screen. I suspect you
> would have a hard time surviving half a day with these
> limitations. no embarrassment in that, most people wouldn't make
> it as far as a half a day.

I've tried a similar experiment and am curious on your input device.
 Eye-tracking/dwell-clicking?  A sip/puff joystick?  Of the various
input methods I tried, I found that Dasher[1] was the most
intuitive, had a fairly high input rate and accuracy (both
initially, and in terms of correcting mistakes I'd made).  It also
had the ability to generate dictionaries/vocabularies that made more
appropriate/weighted suggestions which might help in certain
contexts (e.g. pre-load a Python grammar allowing for choosing full
atoms in a given context).

-tkc

[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dasher
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/