Command Line Applications For Blind Users

Command Line Applications For Blind Users

I believe, and I am in the minority on this one, that totally blind users should employ command-line applications, rather than pasting a screen reader on top of full-screen programs. Manipulating the cursor via speech is irreparably inefficient. To this end I have written a combination editor + browser + mail client that is command-line interactive. You type something and the computer responds. There is no screen, anywhere, ever.

This program is a re-implementation of ed, with browse capabilities built in. You can edit a local file or a remote html document. If you have retrieved an html file, the new command `b' browses the document, rendering all the html tags in a blind-friendly manner. If you are interested in all the formatting details, use the undo command to revert back to the raw html. Since it is a combined editor browser, it is called edbrowse.

The original version was written in perl. You can download version 1.5.17 here, but it is no longer supported or documented. It was a prototype. It does, however, have the advantage of being 100% portable.

As of version 2 and beyond, edbrowse is written in C. Perl is a great prototype language, but I wanted to support javascript, and that is more than perl can handle, so it's back to C for me. Unfortunately the C version is less portable. If you'd like to help with the Windows port, please let me know.

Note, the C version is still in development. It does not support dynamic document objects, digest authentication, ftp, real audio, or other plugins. But it is already doing a lot of things that its predecessor did not do, such as uploading files through html, improved scripting capabilities, and reasonable javascript support.

Downloads:
Documentation, a user's guide
Documentation in French
Edbrowse Executable, Linux elf binary, version 2.2.10, dynamically linked
Edbrowse Source, zip compressed, version 2.2.10
Edbrowse Source, zip compressed, version 3.3.1
Sample Config File

Compiling from source is recommended, as some systems do not have the same libraries as mine. I know; I should put up a statically linked executable, and a windows executable; just haven't gotten round to it. You'll need the packages pcre-devel and openssl-devel to compile version 2. If you didn't install using "Work Station", these may not be present on your system, but they should be on your master disks. If you want version 3, you need spider monkey javascript from Mozilla.org. Instructions are provided in the README file.


My own version of ls. Source Unix elf binary Windows binary

This has options for the file length, time, owner, etc, a much better format that the traditional ls -l, or Windows dir. This program compiles and runs on Linux, Unix, Windows, or Dos.


Jukebox (plays your mp3 files in random order)
Sample config file for the jukebox


A basic calculator, infinite precision arithmetic, modular math, polynomials.
Unix elf binary Windows binary Documentation


For best results, use these programs with a speech adapter that captures the tty output stream, rather than a simple screen reader. I only know of one such adapter, the Jupiter Speech System for Linux.

There is a mailing list for users of Jupiter speech, edbrowse, and other command line utilities. You can join by sending mail to commandline-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.