Developing softwares

[Tim Cross <tcross@pobox.une.edu.au>]

>>>>> "Gilles" == Gilles Casse <gcasse@helis.org> writes:

 Gilles> Hi, I am a still sighted developer.  I guess that blind or
 Gilles> low sighted developers rely on rules or software tools so
 Gilles> that they may more easily manage the sources.

 Gilles> Do you know if they are usual 'coding rules'?  E.g. in the
 Gilles> (rare) C code of emacspeak, TVR starts a section with an
 Gilles> opened tag < and closed it with > For example:

 Gilles> //<set output wave buffer C code //>

 Gilles> With elisp, there are {{{ and }}} # {{{ speech task elisp
 Gilles> code # }}}

 Gilles> Besides it, there are probably tools through emacspeak and
 Gilles> emacs (as etags) which might help to 'summarize' the source.

 Gilles> Could you please share your knowledge about it?  Many thanks
 Gilles> for your answers,

 Gilles> Gilles

The tags you have noticed in the source are relating to emacs folding
mode and not specific to emacspeak. They enable emacs to operate as a
"folding editor" where sections of code are "folded" or hidden with
just a summary line. The folds can then be opened/closed to
reveal/hide parts of the source file. Its not anything specific to
blind or vision impaired programmers and is a technique/facility
available in many programming editors. 

Blind or vision impaired programmers often adhere to or utilize strict
formatting conventions a little more rigorously than sighted
programmers because it can make it easier to navigate around large
source files, but all the good sighted programmers I know do exactly
the same thing for the same reasons - easier navigation. 

Probably the only major change which occured in my programming style
after losing my vision was in the way I name variables/functions
etc. As a sighted programmer I tended to use variables of the form
some_variable_name, but now prefer someVariableName because it is
easier to listen to. Apart from that, my coding style is pretty much
the same as it always was.

Tim

-- 
Tim Cross
Senior Analyst/Programmer
Applications Group - Information Technology
University of New England
 Phone: +61 2 6773 3210
   Fax: +61 2 6773 3424
E-Mail: tcross@pobox.une.edu.au
   Web: http://www.une.edu.au/itd/systems/systems.html
---
"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, 
is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. 
We cause accidents."                             -Nathaniel Borenstein


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