Windows Emacs and Screen Readers

Windows Emacs and Screen Readers

[Zachary]

Hi,
I have had several annoyingly c issues with the Windows port of Emacs and my 
screen reader program, both in console and graphical modes.
The problem with the console mode is that, at least apparently, the status 
line is not displayed unless I use a keystroke like M-X, to force something 
to be displayed in the echo area.  This eliminates a useful source of 
information for me.
In graphical mode, the problems are more obvious and annoying.  They 
manifest themselves from the moment Emacs starts up, I have no idea where my 
cursor is, or if it is in fact reading me a correct bit of information.
The mouse movement hot keys of my screen reader work just fine, but that 
doesn't help me with the cursor.
I'm wondering, essentially, if anyone has gotten Emacs for Windows, or 
otherwise, to work using a screen reader, either through a telnet or SSH 
session or through normal local operation.
Thanks for feedback,
Zack 

Re: Windows Emacs and Screen Readers

[Jason Rumney]

"Zachary" <Z_kline@hotmail.com> writes:

> The problem with the console mode is that, at least apparently, the
> status line is not displayed unless I use a keystroke like M-X, to
> force something to be displayed in the echo area.  This eliminates a
> useful source of information for me.

Console mode on MS-Windows is tuned for use through telnet by default,
because many years ago it was decided that was more useful (or perhaps
more difficult to recover from the inappropriate setting). To tune it
to run locally, add the following to your .emacs:

(setq w32-use-full-screen-buffer nil)


> In graphical mode, the problems are more obvious and annoying.  They
> manifest themselves from the moment Emacs starts up, I have no idea
> where my cursor is, or if it is in fact reading me a correct bit of
> information.

This should be fixed in the development version of Emacs, which can be
obtained from cvs.gnu.org if you are able and willing to compile
yourself, or there are a couple of 6 month old snapshots precompiled
for Windows floating around (the Emacs wiki has links, I think).

Re: Windows Emacs and Screen Readers

[Zachary]

<jasonr (Jason Rumney) @ f2s.com> wrote in message 
news:uis5r7nwi.fsf@jasonrumney.net...
> "Zachary" <Z_kline@hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> The problem with the console mode is that, at least apparently, the
>> status line is not displayed unless I use a keystroke like M-X, to
>> force something to be displayed in the echo area.  This eliminates a
>> useful source of information for me.
>
> Console mode on MS-Windows is tuned for use through telnet by default,
> because many years ago it was decided that was more useful (or perhaps
> more difficult to recover from the inappropriate setting). To tune it
> to run locally, add the following to your .emacs:
>
> (setq w32-use-full-screen-buffer nil)
>
>
>> In graphical mode, the problems are more obvious and annoying.  They
>> manifest themselves from the moment Emacs starts up, I have no idea
>> where my cursor is, or if it is in fact reading me a correct bit of
>> information.
>
> This should be fixed in the development version of Emacs, which can be
> obtained from cvs.gnu.org if you are able and willing to compile
> yourself, or there are a couple of 6 month old snapshots precompiled
> for Windows floating around (the Emacs wiki has links, I think).
>
Thanks for this useful information.  I will be sure to try it and see if it 
works.
Later,
Zack