Re: Interface Builder Alternatives etc
Re: Interface Builder Alternatives etc
- Subject: Re: Interface Builder Alternatives etc
- From: Ricky Sharp <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2007 19:00:36 -0600
On Dec 11, 2007, at 6:19 PM, Josh de Lioncourt wrote:
I posted on this topic previously, but it needs to be revisited. I
hope someone out there can help me find a practical solution.
I'm a blind programmer. I develop mainly under Windows, but have
been wanting to transition to Mac development, as many blind
computer users are moving that way. Plus, I'm a Mac fan anyway.
Interface Builder is essentially useless with VoiceOver, (Apple's
built-in screen reading solution), due to its highly visual usage.
So far as I can tell, there is no way to build an interface with it
and avoid dragging and dropping controls. That means, I can't
create NIB files with it, and I lose all the benefits that come with
having NIB files.
So, a nice user here on this list gave me some sample code of how to
build a basic interface, purely in source. It was all fine and
well, but such a method has a huge number of disadvantages.
1. You lose all the advantages of NIB's (i.e. faster load times,
ease of localization, etc.)
2. Source code building of interfaces is virtually undocumented.
It's extremely difficult to work out the best way of doing things,
when virtually no one builds their interfaces this way.
3. Development time is substantially increased by having to build
interfaces from scratch in the source code.
4. This puts my own development completely out of sync with the rest
of the Cocoa software development universe.
It seems to me that, with Interface Builder or some other tool,
there has got to be some sort of utility for editing NIB files out
there. Something that gives a list of properties in text form of
all of the objects in the NIB file and allows you to adjust the
positioning, look, and other properties without relying on drag-and-
drop.
This is the most frustrating situation I've ever faced in nearly
twenty years of software development. Apple came a long way by
making XCode nearly entirely accessible with VoiceOver, but without
access to Interface Builder, it's not yet practical.
If you can help...offer suggestions...anything at all, please do.
I'm still learning the ins and outs of Cocoa itself, but that is
getting increasingly difficult without being able to build apps with
a UI to experiment. Cocoa books and manuals constantly tell you to
build an interface in IB...connect this UI element to this method,
etc. All useless if you can't get past the UI design step.
Josh,
I just tried using UI Browser to see how controllable IB was. Was a
bit tricky since UI Browser is an application and when IB is not
frontmost, it will hide many of its windows. This includes the
startup template window, library object window and inspector window.
Anyhow, I got around that by using UI Browser's hot keys. But, it
appears that much of the basic tasks in IB's UI is not accessible.
For example, the "Choose a Template" window doesn't make any of the
choices accessible. So, that part is useless.
I also see no alternate method of dragging library template objects
into your windows, etc.
As a minor consolation prize, it does appear that at least the
inspector itself is accessible. I was able to modify at least window
attributes using UI Browser.
Sorry to not be able to point out workarounds. The only thing I can
suggest is to write in to Xcode-users and/or accessibility-dev. The
latter list may be able to provide potential workarounds.
Definitely file bugs on this too. All applications that Apple ships
really need to be accessible.
___________________________________________________________
Ricky A. Sharp mailto:email@hidden
Instant Interactive(tm) http://www.instantinteractive.com
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