Hi folks. I’d like to use DosBox, a piece of software that emulates an MS-DOS environment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably younger than 30. Lol.) Anyhow, DosBox simulates the text-based DOS prompt but isn’t actually a text application. As far as NVDA is concerned, the DosBox window is all graphics.

Are there any strategies for making something like this accessible for us NVDA users? I’m a developer and recently started learning Python so I can author NVDA add-ons. Could an add-on be created that monitors the DosBox screen and translates it to NVDA-readable text, perhaps employing OCR or something? If so, would anyone want to partner on such a project?

Thanks,

Luke

Why do you want to work with such an old environment?  When I first got a computer in 2000, Dos was very, very old, at least in computer programs.  I think I had Windows 5 when I started.  I know my teacher used to like Dos when he wanted to go deep into the computer to do certain things with programs and such.  Does Dos help you with that sort of thing?  This is just my curiosity flowing.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Hi folks. I’d like to use DosBox, a piece of software that emulates an MS-DOS environment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably younger than 30. Lol.) Anyhow, DosBox simulates the text-based DOS prompt but isn’t actually a text application. As far as NVDA is concerned, the DosBox window is all graphics.

Are there any strategies for making something like this accessible for us NVDA users? I’m a developer and recently started learning Python so I can author NVDA add-ons. Could an add-on be created that monitors the DosBox screen and translates it to NVDA-readable text, perhaps employing OCR or something? If so, would anyone want to partner on such a project?

Thanks,

Luke

Hi Leslie,

Fair question. Yup, it’s an ancient and completely outdated operating system. Retro computer stuff is a hobby / fascination of mine so I wanted to poke around and see what I could do in DOS. Maybe re-live my childhood a bit, haha. In other words, just for fun and no practical reason whatsoever.

Luke

Why do you want to work with such an old environment?  When I first got a computer in 2000, Dos was very, very old, at least in computer programs.  I think I had Windows 5 when I started.  I know my teacher used to like Dos when he wanted to go deep into the computer to do certain things with programs and such.  Does Dos help you with that sort of thing?  This is just my curiosity flowing.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Hi folks. I’d like to use DosBox, a piece of software that emulates an MS-DOS environment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably younger than 30. Lol.) Anyhow, DosBox simulates the text-based DOS prompt but isn’t actually a text application. As far as NVDA is concerned, the DosBox window is all graphics.

Are there any strategies for making something like this accessible for us NVDA users? I’m a developer and recently started learning Python so I can author NVDA add-ons. Could an add-on be created that monitors the DosBox screen and translates it to NVDA-readable text, perhaps employing OCR or something? If so, would anyone want to partner on such a project?

Thanks,

Luke

Hi Leslie,

Fair question. Yup, it’s an ancient and completely outdated operating system. Retro computer stuff is a hobby / fascination of mine so I wanted to poke around and see what I could do in DOS. Maybe re-live my childhood a bit, haha. In other words, just for fun and no practical reason whatsoever.

Luke

Why do you want to work with such an old environment?  When I first got a computer in 2000, Dos was very, very old, at least in computer programs.  I think I had Windows 5 when I started.  I know my teacher used to like Dos when he wanted to go deep into the computer to do certain things with programs and such.  Does Dos help you with that sort of thing?  This is just my curiosity flowing.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

Hi folks. I’d like to use DosBox, a piece of software that emulates an MS-DOS environment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably younger than 30. Lol.) Anyhow, DosBox simulates the text-based DOS prompt but isn’t actually a text application. As far as NVDA is concerned, the DosBox window is all graphics.

Are there any strategies for making something like this accessible for us NVDA users? I’m a developer and recently started learning Python so I can author NVDA add-ons. Could an add-on be created that monitors the DosBox screen and translates it to NVDA-readable text, perhaps employing OCR or something? If so, would anyone want to partner on such a project?

Thanks,

Luke

Hi,

The console itself must provide a way for NVDA to detect and announce text changes. Given the nature of emulators, this becoming real is highly unlikely.

As for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), a huge correction: you cannot run Orca on it (or if you can, it’ll require additional tweaking). The whole point of WSL is to make it possible for developers familiar with Linux tools to use a combination of Windows and Linux command-line tools and scripts for various tasks.

Cheers,

Joseph

Well Joseph

I did carefully look at the orca page before sending my Mail to make sure of my facts.

May not be understanding  the issue but they seem pretty unequivocal that Orca can run in this environment.

I quote below what they say about it.

“Note: the ORCA4 Linux shared library version should also work in the Windows 10 linux emulation environment."

From

https://sites.google.com/site/orcainputlibrary/setting-up-orca

David G.

Hi,

The console itself must provide a way for NVDA to detect and announce text changes. Given the nature of emulators, this becoming real is highly unlikely.

As for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), a huge correction: you cannot run Orca on it (or if you can, it’ll require additional tweaking). The whole point of WSL is to make it possible for developers familiar with Linux tools to use a combination of Windows and Linux command-line tools and scripts for various tasks.

Cheers,

Joseph

Well Joseph
I did carefully look at the orca page before sending my Mail to make sure of my facts.
May not be understanding the issue but they seem pretty unequivocal that Orca can run in this environment.
I quote below what they say about it.
“Note: the ORCA4 Linux shared library version should also work in the Windows 10 linux emulation environment."

From
https://sites.google.com/site/orcainputlibrary/setting-up-orca

David G.

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Joseph
Lee
Sent: 12 September 2020 23:33
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?



Hi,
The console itself must provide a way for NVDA to detect and announce text changes. Given the nature of emulators, this becoming real is highly unlikely.
As for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), a huge correction: you cannot run Orca on it (or if you can, it’ll require additional tweaking). The whole point of WSL is to make it possible for developers familiar with Linux tools to use a combination of Windows and Linux command-line tools and scripts for various tasks.
Cheers,
Joseph

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Luke
Robinett
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 3:26 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?



Hi David. Thank you for the response. Unfortunately the command prompt
in windows 10 doesn’t provide a complete DOS environment. The last
version of windows to support true DOS mode was windows 95, if I’m not
mistaken. Some retro gamers get really hardcore and actually put
together old PCs with original hardware from the 80s or 90s and then
install an older operating system like DOS. I don’t think I want to go
quite that far LOL so I was hoping to run one of these emulators to
give me the same experience. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any
that are screen reader compatible. Some guys apparently have luck
installing old versions of jaws for DOS within these emulators. I
actually hunted down an old version of jaws for DOS and tried
installing it within the emulator but I couldn’t get it to work,
mostly because I have no idea what’s going on so I’m just typing
blindly. I tried to use NVDA’s OCR feature to get a sense of what was
happening but I gave up. Maybe I will give it another go later

Hello,

There is a horrible misunderstanding here. There are two programs

called Orca apparently:

- The first one (to which David linked below) is some sort of library

for performing chemical calculations and therefore is not really

interesting with regard to running screen readers under WSL.

- The second one is the screen reader called Orca (it's web page is here https://help.gnome.org/users/orca/stable/)

and AFAIK it cannot be easily started under WSL as of yet.

--

Regards

Lukasz

On Sat, 12 Sep 2020 23:52:53 +0100

"David Griffith" <daj.griffith@...> wrote:

> 

> Well Joseph

> I did carefully look at the orca page before sending my Mail to make sure of my facts.

> May not be understanding  the issue but they seem pretty unequivocal that Orca can run in this environment.

> I quote below what they say about it.

> “Note: the ORCA4 Linux shared library version should also work in the Windows 10 linux emulation environment."

> 

> From

> https://sites.google.com/site/orcainputlibrary/setting-up-orca

> 

> David G.

> 

> From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Joseph Lee

> Sent: 12 September 2020 23:33

> To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

> Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?

>

>

> 

> Hi,

> The console itself must provide a way for NVDA to detect and announce text changes. Given the nature of emulators, this becoming real is highly unlikely.

> As for WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux), a huge correction: you cannot run Orca on it (or if you can, it’ll require additional tweaking). The whole point of WSL is to make it possible for developers familiar with Linux tools to use a combination of Windows and Linux command-line tools and scripts for various tasks.

> Cheers,

> Joseph

> 

> From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Luke Robinett

> Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 3:26 PM

> To: nvda@nvda.groups.io

> Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?

>

>

> 

> Hi David. Thank you for the response. Unfortunately the command prompt in windows 10 doesn’t provide a complete DOS environment. The last version of windows to support true DOS mode was windows 95, if I’m not mistaken. Some retro gamers get really hardcore and actually put together old PCs with original hardware from the 80s or 90s and then install an older operating system like DOS. I don’t think I want to go quite that far LOL so I was hoping to run one of these emulators to give me the same experience. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find any that are screen reader compatible. Some guys apparently have luck installing old versions of jaws for DOS within these emulators. I actually hunted down an old version of jaws for DOS and tried installing it within the emulator but I couldn’t get it to work, mostly because I have no idea what’s going on so I’m just typing blindly. I tried to use NVDA’s OCR feature to get a sense of what was happening but I gave up. Maybe I will give it another go later

>

>

>

>

>

----- Original Message -----

From: Ron Canazzi <aa2vm@...>

Reply-To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io>

To: <nvda@nvda.groups.io>

Sent: 9/13/2020 12:28:15 PM

Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?

---

Hi Group,

I also would like to find  a way to renovate DOS for only one simple reason.  There were a few games: Any Night Football, Jim Kitchen's DOS baseball game (which works more smoothly than his windows port,) and World Series Baseball. 

In particular, World Series Baseball was and still would be one of my favorites of any game I have played.  With this game, not only did it come with preconceived teams from baseball history like the 1927 Yankees, The 1965 Dodgers, The 1976 Reds and so on, but you could also put together your own teams and give them high or low batting averages and the pitcher could get high or low ERAs.  If you did this with various configurations, you could rig the scores and outcomes of games.  For laughs and giggle, I put together two teams: one was a group of sighted people from the local ham radio clubs.  The other team was a number of blind people I knew from the local area.  I gave the sighted team low batting averages and high ERAs.  I have the blind people high batting averages and low ERAs.  I called the ham radio people 'the Buffalo Hambones.'  I called the blind people 'The Buffalo Blinks.' It was really funny.  The blind team won the World Series four games to zero by astronomical scores like 22-0 and 17-2.  What's more, the audio output of the games as they were being played could be saved to a text file.  I actually had this 500 KB sized text file and for laughs and giggle, I sent it around to various friends of mine.  Yes the virtual play-by-play of the game. What a hoot!  It was great when my good sighted ham friend Tony struck out four times when facing the young blind lady pitcher. 

Boy, I wish I could have a DOS system so I could play that game again!

On 9/12/2020 5:24 PM, blindgroupsluke@... wrote:

Hi Leslie,

 

Fair question. Yup, it’s an ancient and completely outdated operating system. Retro computer stuff is a hobby / fascination of mine so I wanted to poke around and see what I could do in DOS. Maybe re-live my childhood a bit, haha. In other words, just for fun and no practical reason whatsoever.

Luke

 

From: nvda@nvda.groups.io <nvda@nvda.groups.io> On Behalf Of Leslie
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 2:21 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: Re: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?

 

Why do you want to work with such an old environment?  When I first got a computer in 2000, Dos was very, very old, at least in computer programs.  I think I had Windows 5 when I started.  I know my teacher used to like Dos when he wanted to go deep into the computer to do certain things with programs and such.  Does Dos help you with that sort of thing?  This is just my curiosity flowing.

 

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

 

From: blindgroupsluke@...
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 1:22 PM
To: nvda@nvda.groups.io
Subject: [nvda] NVDA support in DOS emulators like DosBox?

 

Hi folks. I’d like to use DosBox, a piece of software that emulates an MS-DOS environment. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you’re probably younger than 30. Lol.) Anyhow, DosBox simulates the text-based DOS prompt but isn’t actually a text application. As far as NVDA is concerned, the DosBox window is all graphics.

Are there any strategies for making something like this accessible for us NVDA users? I’m a developer and recently started learning Python so I can author NVDA add-ons. Could an add-on be created that monitors the DosBox screen and translates it to NVDA-readable text, perhaps employing OCR or something? If so, would anyone want to partner on such a project?

 

Thanks,

Luke

 

 

-- 
They Ask Me If I'm Happy; I say Yes.
They ask: "How Happy are You?"
I Say: "I'm as happy as a stow away chimpanzee on a banana boat!"