4 ms·

How do other editors/IDEs perform in terms of accessibility? What are your favorites?

giancarlostoro 4y ago
I've only ever heard good things about Visual Studio in this area, not sure if other IDEs are comparable. I do know Eclipse has a specialized build for this purpose as well. I wonder if XCode is also decent in this regard. I think Notepad++ might be only other one from memory that I know of.
dharmab 4y ago
Visual Studio is quite good: https://youtu.be/94swlF55tVc https://youtu.be/94swlF55tVc
ClawsOnPaws 4y ago
My favorite is VS Code by far. I use it daily. They recently also added a bunch of sound cues to help figure out if code is folded or a line contains an error. It's pretty great. Auto completion reads well, the parameter hints read, even the built-in terminal works. So overall I'm really happy with it.
- exysle 4y ago
  Would you mind commenting on XCode? I heard that Apple really cares about accessibility.
  - spartanatreyu 4y ago
    The design of the existing and previous mac mice and the new System Settings app in MacOS Ventura tell a different story.
    - dewey 4y ago
      > the new System Settings app in MacOS Ventura Maybe it's just me but I'd not judge things like that on the first non-public beta.
  - ClawsOnPaws 4y ago
    I don't have much experience with XCode, however the few things I did do seemed accessible. As accessible as XCode can be - I personally find a lot of the interface a bit confusing. Super long lists, nested options, but I assume those aren't things that are specifically confusing to people using assistive tech and I'm sure I'd be able to find my way around it well if I used it more. Mac seems to be a lot more consistent with their accessibility story than others, and we constantly get new features from them. With the new MacOS for example we got a VoiceOver feature that tells us when we have formatting problems in text, and we can finally get indentation announced (something which we had to do using custom scripting before). Not to mention all the cool things that involve some form of (live) image recognition, like telling us where people are, where doors are, etc etc.
- kfrzcode 4y ago
  Microsoft is particularly good with regard to a11y and devtooling
- behnamoh 4y ago
  speaking of VSCODE, i wonder if MS acquiring github has anything to do with sunsetting atom.
  - intern4tional 4y ago
    Not likely, GitHub is a separate business and makes their own decisions. MS also competes with GitHub also; Azure Repos are a thing, as is Azure DevOps and those are just two examples. MS has plenty of products that compete with each other. In some spaces this is a good strategy as you will capture more market share with two products than you will with one and you can avoid to an extent monopoly claims. GitHub Codespaces is what killed Atom and while MS was probably involved in the decision to develop Codespaces, the decision to sunset Atom likely wasn't explicitly made at that time; its simply a side affect as other things have eclipsed Atom.
    - rezoneight 4y ago
      Microsoft has moved essentially the whole development team for Azure DevOps to GitHub. GitHub is what they consider the future.
  - PoignardAzur 4y ago
    It probably played a pretty big role. Everything Atom could do, VsCode could do better. At some point it didn't make sense to put man-hours into two different editors with the exact same technology stack.
- unethical_ban 4y ago
  I cannot comprehend being blind and developing for my existence. I think I would die, or else become a lecturer .
  - d1sxeyes 4y ago
    What an exceptionally unhelpful comment.
    - unethical_ban 4y ago
      It was. I was in a particularly moody state and my filter was gone. It was meant in a way to be sympathetic to the challenges of that situation but is phrased badly. I'd delete it but I can't.
      - d1sxeyes 4y ago
        These things happen. Props for acknowledging.

I've only ever heard good things about Visual Studio in this area, not sure if other IDEs are comparable. I do know Eclipse has a specialized build for this purpose as well. I wonder if XCode is also decent in this regard. I think Notepad++ might be only other one from memory that I know of.

dharmab 4y ago

Visual Studio is quite good: https://youtu.be/94swlF55tVc https://youtu.be/94swlF55tVc

ClawsOnPaws 4y ago

My favorite is VS Code by far. I use it daily. They recently also added a bunch of sound cues to help figure out if code is folded or a line contains an error. It's pretty great. Auto completion reads well, the parameter hints read, even the built-in terminal works. So overall I'm really happy with it.

exysle 4y ago
Would you mind commenting on XCode? I heard that Apple really cares about accessibility.
- spartanatreyu 4y ago
  The design of the existing and previous mac mice and the new System Settings app in MacOS Ventura tell a different story.
  - dewey 4y ago
    > the new System Settings app in MacOS Ventura Maybe it's just me but I'd not judge things like that on the first non-public beta.
- ClawsOnPaws 4y ago
  I don't have much experience with XCode, however the few things I did do seemed accessible. As accessible as XCode can be - I personally find a lot of the interface a bit confusing. Super long lists, nested options, but I assume those aren't things that are specifically confusing to people using assistive tech and I'm sure I'd be able to find my way around it well if I used it more. Mac seems to be a lot more consistent with their accessibility story than others, and we constantly get new features from them. With the new MacOS for example we got a VoiceOver feature that tells us when we have formatting problems in text, and we can finally get indentation announced (something which we had to do using custom scripting before). Not to mention all the cool things that involve some form of (live) image recognition, like telling us where people are, where doors are, etc etc.
kfrzcode 4y ago
Microsoft is particularly good with regard to a11y and devtooling
behnamoh 4y ago
speaking of VSCODE, i wonder if MS acquiring github has anything to do with sunsetting atom.
- intern4tional 4y ago
  Not likely, GitHub is a separate business and makes their own decisions. MS also competes with GitHub also; Azure Repos are a thing, as is Azure DevOps and those are just two examples. MS has plenty of products that compete with each other. In some spaces this is a good strategy as you will capture more market share with two products than you will with one and you can avoid to an extent monopoly claims. GitHub Codespaces is what killed Atom and while MS was probably involved in the decision to develop Codespaces, the decision to sunset Atom likely wasn't explicitly made at that time; its simply a side affect as other things have eclipsed Atom.
  - rezoneight 4y ago
    Microsoft has moved essentially the whole development team for Azure DevOps to GitHub. GitHub is what they consider the future.
- PoignardAzur 4y ago
  It probably played a pretty big role. Everything Atom could do, VsCode could do better. At some point it didn't make sense to put man-hours into two different editors with the exact same technology stack.
unethical_ban 4y ago
I cannot comprehend being blind and developing for my existence. I think I would die, or else become a lecturer .
- d1sxeyes 4y ago
  What an exceptionally unhelpful comment.
  - unethical_ban 4y ago
    It was. I was in a particularly moody state and my filter was gone. It was meant in a way to be sympathetic to the challenges of that situation but is phrased badly. I'd delete it but I can't.
    - d1sxeyes 4y ago
      These things happen. Props for acknowledging.